



















& 


1 

































































SESi 








H «•* ****!'■ 

f «♦*»'* k i * * v * 

#;* . i' » » >f 


Its* >'* 


her mother waved her hand gallantly 


Dear ie , Dot 
ar)d t/ye Dog 

Jutie M. X i p p m ann 

^A.ut/>or of “J*\v f f f P's", etc. 

> l il l , ] ) ] , '*> > ’ o J \ > * > 

JCCustrated by JtytffisTa r ef’p* >HJ« p r) e 



3T p> e 5>enn ^Pubfisfoing Company 
S 5 f) i t ad< f p f> i a IMG^MIII 


I'll 

* v~ 




THE LibRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 


Two Copies Received 

9 

JUN 10 1903 

•• • * # 

* • •• • • • • • 

*• • • *•••••• • 

• •• «• • ••*•••• 

/Copyngnt Entry . 

4M99 A- XXc. No 

■\1CoA Si4- 

' copy B. 


.*» • .* •*. .S*-™**** ■i'*V 
I * . • *•»•*« • * * «» 

, ♦ ® . « . *“» » 



Copyright 1903 by The Penn Publishing Company 




Dearie, Dot, and the Dog 


t 



J 

M ' 

Q 


Contents 


CHAP. PAGE 

I “ Chiffon ” 5 

II Getting Acquainted 17 

III “ Cinderella ” . . . * 29 

IY Preparations 42 

Y The Spite-Party 55 

YI “ Mrs. Hitchcock and Mrs. Brown,” 64 

YII On the Way Home 78 

YIII ’ Being Brave 90 

IX A Hew Friend 103 

X Telegrams 115 

XI Paddling Her Own Canoe .... 126 

XII Afterward 139 

XIII Stories 150 

XIY Trials and Tribulations 165 

XY Surprises 181 


3 






































































































































Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


CHAPTER I 

“ CHIFFON ” 

Dearie and Dot stood beside a great spile amid a 
crowd of people upon the pier, and Dot’s mother 
stood beside the brass rail amid another crowd of peo- 
ple upon the deck of the huge ocean steamship that 
was just about to start upon its long voyage across 
the sea. 

Everything was haste and noise and confusion. 
Whistles blew, bells clanged and men shouted. 

Dot clutched Dearie’s hand and snuggled closer to 
her side, for in all her eight short years of life she 
had never before been in such a hubbub as this and 
it frightened her very much. Her mother gazed 
down at her and smiled and waved her hand gallantly, 
but Dot could see that her face was white and that 
her lips trembled in spite of the smile. Hot tears 
welled up into Dot’s eyes at the sight, but she crushed 
them back again, for Dearie had said that it was go- 
5 


6 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

ing to be hard enough for her mother to go away and 
leave her little girl behind, as she was compelled to 
do, without having the added grief of seeing her in 
sorrow and being unable to comfort her. Still, her 
effort might have been in vain, for a big, choking sob 
was rising in her throat, if just at that moment her 
attention had not been turned from her own trouble 
to that of some one else. The gangplank had been 
drawn away, the big warning-bell had rung “ All 
ashore f ” for the last time, and the band on deck was 
starting in to play the first bars of a gay military 
march when all at once, back upon the dock, there 
was a great clatter of hoofs and wheels, a great shout- 
ing, and a big man with a very red face, and a little 
lady with a very pale one were seen to rush frantic- 
ally from the cab in which they had dashed up, 
toward the steamer that was just about to move 
away. 

Dot was too little to be able to make out how these 
late-comers were bundled on board, but in a moment 
they were on the lower deck and she saw the little 
lady turn, look quickly toward the pier and then 
wring her hands together as if in great distress. The 
big man turned too, but he only shook his head sadly 
and the little woman seemed to feel that that settled 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 7 

the question once and for all, whatever it might be, 
for she stopped wringing her hands and leaned over 
the brass deck-rail and gazed miserably over the water 
which was quickly widening between her and the 
land, searching for something which, apparently, she 
could not see. 

Dot’s mother nodded “ good-bye ” again and again ; 
a cloud of white handkerchiefs waved from ship and 
shore ; the band crashed out its gay tune and people 
cheered, laughed and cried all at once, while the great 
boat swung slowly out and away into the stream. 
Suddenly Dot saw the little lady on the lower deck 
give a great start, clap her hands wildly and point ex- 
citedly toward where she and Dearie were standing 
on the pier. Following the direction of her finger 
Dot turned and lo ! there just beside where she stood 
at the top of the high spile that rose well above the 
edge of the pier squatted a little white dog. It was 
so little and so white a dog that, at first, Dot could 
hardly believe it was actually alive and had clambered 
up there alone, but in some manner it had found its 
way to the water’s edge and was now sitting perched 
up at that dizzy height gazing anxiously out after 
the moving ship and looking so lonely and forsaken 
that Dot’s heart quite thumped with pity at sight of 


8 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

it. Without stopping to think she dropped Dearie’s 
hand and stood on tiptoe trying to reach the snowy 
bunch. 

“ Oh, puppy, puppy ! ” she cried in great excitement, 
looking up at the wee creature adoringly, “did the 
ship go off and leave you ? Did it ? Did it ? ” 

At the sound of her sweet young voice the tuft of 
white wool turned its head and looked down at Dot en- 
quiringly, seeming dumbly to demand if she really 
were a friend who could sympathize and perhaps help 
in his time of trouble. 

“ Oh, dear puppy— poor puppy ! ” she said as if in 
answer to his question. 

The tiny thing evidently felt satisfied that she 
would at least do what she could and so, to make its 
case quite clear it suddenly sat up stiff and straight 
and putting its forepaws together supplicatingly, be- 
gan waving them violently up and down in the direc- 
tion of the ship. 

A great shout of delight went up from the watch- 
ing crowd. 

“ See, it’s begging ! ” 

“ What a cunning trick ! ” 

“ It wants to be taken to its owners on the ship ! ” 

“ The poor little mite ! ” 


9 


Dearie, Dot and the Dog 

Dot’s eyes were wet with tears. “ Oh, I’m so sorry, 
puppy,” she declared in a tremulous voice. “ But you 
can’t go on the ship, you know. Neither can I. It 
has sailed off and left us and we won’t see our folks 
for a long, long time.” 

The ball of white fluff on top of the spile seemed to 
ponder her words very carefully, for its beseeching 
stopped and it sat quite still, with its head on one 
side, looking at her closely. “ Dear, dear ! ” it seemed 
to be thinking, “ I’m not at all certain I understand, 
but I seem to be in a very bad plight indeed. My 
own dear missy has gone away, on that thing that is 
floating off beyond there and it’s impossible to reach 
her. I can’t imagine how I came to be left behind in 
that wretched jolty affair they called a cab, for I am 
by habit very prompt and always ready and she 
hardly ever doesn’t take me with her when she goes 
out. I can’t believe she intended to desert me ! No, 
indeed ! Why, only this morning she put this bright, 
new silver collar around my neck and locked it on with 
a little key, and I’m sure she wouldn’t have done that, 
if she had meant to forsake me. No, no. It was quite 
an accident. But, nevertheless, I’m in a very sad way. 
I’m afraid of this crowd of strangers. The only one 
I seem to understand at all is this kind young missy 


io 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

witli the clear voice and eyes of love for little dogs. 
She appears to be telling me that I can’t go on. the 
ship and that she can’t either'for that matter. So, it 
seems, we are in the same boat — which is to say 
we are out of the same boat. If that is really the 
case who will give me my meals ? Who will cuddle 
me when I feel chilly and lonesome ? Who will let 
me sleep on a nice silk cushion at the foot of her bed 
o’ nights? Oh me! Oh my! I feel very forlorn 
and sorrowful. I wonder if I can trust this new 
friend? Guess I’ll try. She looks kind. Anyway— 
here goes ! ” 

Suddenly a short, sharp bark broke from the little 
tuft of white down on the top of the spile. It gave a 
long look toward the ship and then, without more ado, 
turned and sprang straight down into Dot’s arms 
where it settled itself comfortably, licking her hands 
and wagging its tail as if to seal and sign its new 
compact of friendliness. 

“Oh, you pet! You precious ! ” crooned Dot in 
delight. 

The crowd about her cheered. It was such a pretty 
sight : the delicate child caressing the dainty dog : a 
pair of little lonely things comforting each other. 

But the general noise and notice made Dot shy and 


1 1 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

she grasped Dearie’s hand tightly, whispering to her 
in a scared, breathless voice of anxiety : 

“ Oh, Dearie, won’t you please — to take me home ?” 

“ Why, yes, Dot, of course I will, if you wish to go. 
But I’m sure you want to have another glimpse of 
your mother, don’t you ? See, the ship has only gone 
out a way, so it may have room to turn around. 
There ! It is turning around now. In a few minutes 
it will pass by here again — it may come quite near — 
and then, if you look sharp perhaps you can catch a 
glimpse of mamma and wave ‘Good-bye’ to her once 
more.” 

Sure enough ! Dearie was right ! The great boat 
had swung slowly about and was at that very moment 
making straight back on its track past the pier. The 
crowd forgot to watch Dot and the dog in its eagerness 
to watch the ship and Dot herself remembered noth- 
ing but her mother and the fact that if she “looked 
sharp ” she might possibly see her again. Nearer and 
nearer came the ship. Its decks were white with 
waving handkerchiefs and black with what looked 
like a swarm of ants. Another moment and hark ! 
those were the strains of the military march the band 
was playing. The crowd on the pier shouted and the 
crowd on board answered. Now the ants on deck 


12 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

turned out to be real people and now the people were 
beginning to look like persons — persons one had seen 
before and could recognize. There, was not that the 
tall man with the field-glasses slung over his shoulder, 
whom Dot had noticed because he was so very cross 
to everybody who came in his way ? And was not 
that the poor girl on the steerage-deck who had cried 
so loudly when her brother took leave of her ? And 
there — up there — was not that Dot’s mother leaning 
upon the rail and waving her hand gallantly and 
smiling that sweet, trembling smile of farewell, just 
as she had done before ? 

Suddenly Dot felt a stifling tug at her heart and 
heard a quivering, sobbing voice cry out : 

“O, mamma, mamma! I didn’t mean to — but I 
can’t help it — I can’t help crying — I want you so” — 
and wondered what other little girl’s mother was sail- 
ing away from her and leaving her grieving behind, 
until she felt Dearie’s comforting arm draw close 
about her and found herself listening to Dearie’s 
gentle, soothing voice saying : 

“ Be brave, Dot darling. Don’t cry ! Show a 
smiling face. Don’t let mother’s last glimpse of her 
little daughter be a sad one,” and knew that she her- 
self had been the girl who had cried out and that she 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 13 

had done what she had promised Dearie she would on 
no account permit herself to do. 

In a flash she had brushed the tears away and rais- 
ing the white puppy high in air was waving it bravely 
above her head, calling “ Good-bye, mamma ! Good- 
bye, mamma ! ” as loud as she could shout. Her 
mother looked and smiled — a real, true, sure-enough 
smile this time and then — all at once, Dot felt herself 
grasped and lifted up in two, great, strong arms and 
set atop of the spile on which the puppy had sat. She 
was not in the least alarmed, for the two strong hands 
held her fast and one glimpse into the laughing, 
kindly face of the gentleman to whom they belonged 
was enough to convince her he was “ trustable.” 

From her high perch it seemed as if she could look 
the whole ship over. There was the sick lady in the 
“ spreading-out ” chair whom she had seen carried on 
board. There was the big man with the red face who 
had almost been left behind and there — yes, there 
beside him was the little lady with the pale face who 
had wrung her hands so disconsolately when she 
found herself hustled on deck without her white bow- 
wow and who had clapped them so happily when she 
saw it perched safe and sound on the towering spile. 
She clapped them again now, as she saw Dot with the 


14 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

dog in her arms and then, in a series of very express- 
ive gestures, she made it clear to everybody about 
that the little creature belonged to her and that she 
loved it dearly, but since it had been left behind and 
found its way to a new friend Dot might have 
it to keep as her very own. The pantomime was 
hardly over and Dot was having to keep a sharp look- 
out for the concluding gestures when the great ship 
swept past and beyond into the distance. She caught 
a last, long look from her mother, sent her a bright, 
brave smile in return and then she was lightly lifted 
from off her pedestal and set upon the ground by 
Dearie’s side. 

So it was all over. The ship had started out upon 
her long voyage across the ocean and the ones 
who were left behind had nothing now to do but turn 
their faces toward home and make the best of life as it 
would be without the dear ones who had sailed away. 

Dearie grasped Dot’s hand and guided her safely 
through the wilderness of horses, drays and dock- 
hands out into the street, while Dot, in turn, clasped 
doggie tightly to her breast and was only afraid that 
by some mischance it might escape from her and be 
lost forever amid the crowd. 

But the puppy had no intention of being left 


15 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

behind a second time that morning. It snuggled 
close to its new mistress and looked out from the 
shelter of her arm and the tangle of its own long 
white fringe of hair with bright, inquisitive eyes 
which seemed to notice everything and to see that 
such a big, busy world was no place for a small, un- 
protected dog to wander about. 

It was only when they were safely settled in 
the homeward-bound car that Dot found her first op- 
portunity to become really acquainted with her new 
treasure. 

44 See, oh see, Dearie ! ” she whispered eagerly in 
her young aunt’s ear. “Its eyes are brown, aren’t 
they ? And look ! It has a collar on — a bright, 
new, silver collar with lettering across ; isn’t it beau- 
tiful ? — 4 C-H-I-F-F-O-N ! ’ What does that mean, 
Dearie, dear ? ” 

Dearie smiled and examined the delicate engraving 
carefully. 

44 It is evidently the doggie’s name,” she explained. 
44 And it is a French word that means rag or scrap. 
The puppy is such a shaggy, silky, white mite I sup- 
pose its mistress thought it looked like a little scrap 
and called it so. Just as when you were a new-born 
baby we thought you so very tiny a thing, that 


16 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


we called you Dot although your real name is 
Barbara.” 

“ Chiffon ! Chiffon ! ” repeated Dot thoughtfully, 
trying to accustom herself to the doggie’s foreign 
name. 

And Chiffon in return wagged its tail vehemently 
and gave two short, sharp barks that sounded like 
“Dot! Dot!” And so it was that these two new 
friends were formally introduced. 


CHAPTER II 


GETTING ACQUAINTED 

Long after Dot and Chiffon had fallen asleep that 
night (Dot in her snowy white bed and Chiffon upon 
a soft down-cushion in a basket-bed of his own), 
Dearie sat awake and thought and thought until the 
lamp burned low and the clock chimed out the latest 
of hours. She did not feel precisely sad, but she 
certainly felt very serious, for she knew that a great 
responsibility had been placed upon her and she 
realized how difficult it would be to prove equal to it, 
for though in Dot’s opinion she was extremely old 
and full of wisdom, she was in reality very youthful 
and only as wise as a young lady of her age has any 
right to be. 

She was some years younger than Dot’s mother, 
who was her only sister and in whose home she 
had lived ever since Mrs. Brooke’s marriage to Dot’s 
father, ten years before. Captain Brooke was a naval 
officer : commander of one of the ships in the govern- 
ment service, and two years ago he had set sail for 
the other side of the world where his sea duty would 
17 


18 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


keep him for twelve months longer. It had not been 
possible for him to take his family with him, for Dot 
was frail and delicate and could not have borne the 
climate into which he had gone, but on the other 
hand he himself had been ailing lately and it seemed 
necessary that his wife should follow him to his 
eastern station. So it was that she had been a 
passenger in the great outgoing ocean-liner that 
morning, and that Dearie and Dot had stood waving 
her a last good-bye from the end of the pier, and so it 
was that Dearie sat thinking such serious thoughts so 
late at night, while Dot lay fast asleep in her snowy 
white bed and Chiffon dreamed contentedly beside 
her in a basket-bed of his own. 

To keep her sister’s house for her in her absence and 
take proper care of her little daughter — this was what 
it was to be Dearie’s duty to do from now on for a 
year to come, and it must be confessed it seemed to 
her to be no easy task. 

“ Suppose — suppose ” — her troublesome thoughts 
kept suggesting. 

But it is the worst of bad plans to give way to the 
discouragement that comes by “supposing” all the 
dreadful things that may happen, and that very sel- 
dom do, and Dearie gave herself a quick little shake 


9 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

as the clock chimed out midnight, and she realized how 
long she had been sitting there indulging in useless 
worry. She turned down the wick of the lamp with a 
snap and hastened up-stairs to make ready for bed, a 
valiant look in her clear young eyes and a determined 
expression about her mouth. Her head had hardly 
touched the pillow when she was fast asleep and then, 
the next moment as it seemed to her, she was awak- 
ened by sounds of laughing and barking in the little 
room next her own, and sat up in a sudden amazement 
to see the sun streaming in at the window and to hear 
Dot’s exclamations of delight over the accomplish- 
ments of her new friend who, it appeared, was “show- 
ing off ” with great good nature and much pride in the 
appreciation his tricks received. 

“Oh, Chiffon! You funny, funny lambie-dog!” 
Dot was saying, between laughs. “ How did you learn 
to beg so prettily? And to think of your being able 
to walk on your hind legs ! And to put up your paw 
to shake hands ! Why, you’re just the most knowing 
dog in the world ! ” 

Dearie drew her watch out from under her pillow 
and looked to see what hour it was. 

“ Dot ! — Dot ! ” she called cheerily. “ Seven o’clock 
and time to get up ! ” 


20 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

The usual answer to this summons was a languid 
“Very well — bime-by ! ” but now Dearie was aston- 
ished to hear instead the briskest of brisk voices re- 
turning, “ All right, Dearie, dear, I’ll hurry ! ” 

And hurry she did, drawing on her stockings and 
buttoning her shoes without a murmur after Dearie 
had whisked her in and out of the bath tub, where she 
had ducked and plunged like a young porpoise at 
play. 

“ We’ll have to scrub Chiffon too, one of these days,” 
Dearie explained, while she was combing and brushing 
Dot’s hair, and the little girl quite forgot to cry out 
during the operation that “ it pulled,” as it was her 
habit to do, so intent was she on the novel idea of the 
small dog having to be shampooed. 

“ He is as white as cotton wool, isn’t he, Dearie?” 
she exclaimed, looking down proudly upon the snowy 
creature stretching himself lazily at her feet. 

“ Yes but he will not be so long, if we do not keep 
him properly bathed and brushed. You would be sur- 
prised to see how short a time it would take before 
his hair would grow smutty and matted if it were neg- 
lected. Dogs and Dots need a lot of attention if we 
want them to be dainty and lovable,” with which 
Dearie lifted Dot from her chair of torture, kissed her 


21 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

on both cheeks and pronounced her “ done and ready 
for breakfast.” 

There were a thousand things to be attended to that 
day, and Dearie was so busy that she hardly had a 
chance to give more than an occasional hurried glance 
into the nursery, but every time she did so, she found 
the two new friends playing contentedly together and 
so absorbed in their games that they did not notice 
her at all. 

“ It’s so much better than if Dot were lonely and 
fretting her heart out for her mother,” she said to her- 
self with satisfaction, as she went softly away and 
back to her tasks again. 

In the meantime Chiffon did not find it entirely 
comfortable to be decked out in dolly Johanna-Marie’s 
dresses, even though they were her “ best Sunday-go- 
to-meeting ” ones, but he tried to make the best of it 
until he saw his opportunity to escape, when he made 
a rush for the door and gave Dot a grand chase before 
she could catch him. Under tables and over chairs he 
went ! Down-stairs like a little streak of white light- 
ning and into closets and out of them again until she 
was fairly breathless with running, and was only too 
glad, when at last he let her overtake him, to strip off 
the objectionable garments and leave him to enjoy his 


22 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

nap in peace while she pretended he had been a bur- 
glar who had broken into the nursery and made off 
with Johanna-Marie’s wardrobe, and that she had he- 
roically captured him and cast him into prison for his 
crime. She had never had such good sport and exer- 
cise as this, and she came to the luncheon-table with 
the healthiest of appetites and the rosiest of cheeks, 
while Chiffon showed his recovered relish for life by 
sitting up beside her chair and Dearie’s and begging 
in his very best manner for every mouthful he saw 
pass between their lips. 

“No one must give him any meat until we have 
made sure it will agree with him,” declared Dearie as 
she prepared a delicious saucerful of bread and milk 
and bade Ellen, the maid, carry it to the butler’s pan- 
try, which was to be Chiffon’s special dining-room 
after this. 

u He dearly loves liver,” suggested Dot. “ Did you 
see how he jumped about and begged for it this morn- 
ing, at breakfast ? ” 

“ Yes, dear, but we must not attempt to give him 
any until we have asked some one who knows all 
about dogs, just what diet is best for this breed of 
puppy.” 

“ What breed of puppy ? ” 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog- 23 

“ Chiffon’s. I think I can safely say he’s neither a 
St. Bernard nor a Great Dane,” laughed Dearie look- 
ing down at the wee bunch with eyes of amusement; 
“ but to tell you the truth I don’t know much more 
than that. We’ll ask a dog-fancier and he’ll be able 
to settle it. He’ll advise us too, what we ought to 
feed him and in the meantime, to avoid risks, Chiffon 
must be kept on the simplest of food — bread and 
milk, and bread and gravy and such good, harmless 
stuff.” 

Ellen smiled a little guiltily at Dearie’s words, for 
she and Katy, the cook, had been unable to resist 
Chiffon’s captivating wiles and had given him a gen- 
erous supply of liver that morning when he had turned 
up his fastidious little nose at his own breakfast and 
had wandered down into the kitchen region following 
the savory smell of the frying meat. 

Katy had thought his begging trick the “ takin’est 
thing ever was,” and Ellen had decided that such 
virtue ought certainly to be rewarded, and that “a 
little bite o’ somethin’ to put his teeth in,” could not 
possibly “ harm him a mite,” and so between them 
both, Chiffon, like J. Sprat Esq. and his wife, had 
“ licked the platter clean.” After such a glorious 
feast no wonder the simple fare Dearie was preparing 


24 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

for him looked tame and uninviting. Chiffon eyed it 
with unconcealed scorn and when Ellen carried it into 
the butler’s pantry and set it upon the floor, he re- 
fused to follow, turning his back upon her and de- 
liberately walking off in another direction to show 
his contempt for the whole proceeding. 

Dearie laughed with amusement over his high-and- 
mighty temper, but Dot could not see any fun in it 
when all the time she felt her “ precious puppy ” was 
“ starving to death.” 

“ Not a bit of it,” Dearie reassured her. “ He is al- 
together too fastidious. When he is hungry he’ll be 
glad to take what he can get and what is good for 
him. We mustn’t spoil him, you know. It isn’t 
wholesome for any one to be so over-particular and 
finical.” 

Dot’s eyelids quivered and she looked down at her 
plate with a conscious flush. She never had been 
able to like string-beans and there was at that mo- 
ment a little pile' of them hidden beneath her knife 
and fork which she had hoped Dearie would not dis- 
cover. But now of her own accord she made a sud- 
den dash at them and they were gone in a flash. 

Dearie did not seem to notice, but when the dessert 
was brought in, Dot’s share was unusually generous 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 25 

and, as it happened to be a dish she particularly liked, 
she felt well repaid for her little struggle. 

But Chiffon remained obstinate and the despised 
dish in the pantry had to be removed untasted. If 
Dot had dared she would have given in and gotten him 
something more to his taste, but Dearie had strictly 
forbidden it and so it was a famishing doggie, as she 
thought, that Dot took out for a walk that afternoon. 

What fun it was to see people stop and gaze after 
her property with eyes of admiration and to hear 
them exclaim upon his attractions and accomplish- 
ments ! By evening Dot knew that she owned not 
alone a very pretty pet but an extremely valuable one 
as well. 

“ ’E’s a Maltese terrier, miss,” the dog-fancier as- 
sured Dearie. “ H’and a mighty good ’un at that. I 
know ’im well. ’E belonged to Mrs. Livingston Law- 
son 00s ’us band ’as been made minister to — to — well, 
Ili’ve forgot the name of the place, but it’s in foreign 
parts somewhere. She thought a lot of ’im — II i 
means the dog, miss, not ’er ’usband. ’E’s got a A 1 
pedigree. You’ll ’ave to look out for ’im, for there’s 
a plenty would be glad enough to steal ’im off of you 
and sell ’im again in another city for a big ’andful. 
Yes, miss, better feed ’im light and give ’im h’enough 


26 


D earie , Dot and the Dog 

h’exercise. Them little lap-dogs gets to be mighty 
lazy h’if you don’t keep ’em stirrin’ some.” 

“ Oh, Dearie,” Dot whispered excitedly, as they left 
the shop. “You don’t really think any one would 
carry off my puppy, do you ? ” 

“I hope not,” returned Dearie who had been as 
much dismayed as Dot was by the dog-fancier’s sug- 
gestion, though she would not have confessed it for 
the world. “ I hope not. But we’ll keep a sharp 
lookout and never lose hold of him a moment when 
we have him in the street. And we must warn Ellen 
and Katy about the basement door. He might slip 
out there some day if they leave it open when he is 
about.” 

“ Oh, dear me ! ” sighed Dot. “ Seems to me it’s 
going to be very worrisome, if we’ve got to think of 
Chiffon every single minute for fear something’ll hap- 
pen to him.” 

Dearie smiled. “ That’s responsibility, little lady. 
When we have pets we must take care of them. I’m 
trying to take care of you and you are trying to take 
care of Chiffon, and so it goes.” 

“ But who’s Chiffon trying to take care of ? ” 

“ Oh — I don’t know — the house, maybe. He 
probably feels that if he didn’t bark every once 



WE WILL NEVER LOSE HOLD OF HIM 





Dearie , Dot and the Dog 27 

in a while, all sorts of things would happen to 
us all.” 

“Well, I don’t know what in the world I’d do with- 
out him now,” said Dot, looking down at him 
adoringly as he trotted along beside her at the end of 
his long, newly-bought leash. “ And if I knew some 
dreadful man had him I guess I’d — I’d cry my eyes 
out. Nellie Carter saw a dog once that had a fire- 
cracker tied to his tail. She told me about it. It 
was Fourth of July and some horrid boys had put it 
on, and when it went off the dog was almost fright- 
ened to death. He ran with all his might and main, 
and they laughed. Don’t you think they were cruel, 
Dearie, to treat him so? Just think if Chiffon had a 
firecracker tied to his tail ” 

“We won’t think such a thing,” said Dearie. 
“We’ll only think pleasant thoughts, if you please. 
Such as, for instance, how good the glass of soda- 
water is going to taste that we’ll get in a moment or 
so. That’s a much more agreeable subject, isn’t it?” 

Dot laughed and the two little anxious lines be- 
tween her eyebrows promptly disappeared and did 
not come back again during the rest of the afternoon. 

Chiffon, for his part, did not seem to be at all 
anxious on his own account. He trotted along with 


28 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

his* nose in the air and his tasselled tail gallantly 
frisking. He may have been grieving his heart out 
for Mrs. Livingston Lawson, but if he was, he 
managed to hide it bravely. His silver collar flashed 
in the sunlight, and his long, silky ears waved like 
two little white flags of truce in the wind, while 
he seemed challenging all the other dogs in town to 
show a more valiant spirit than his. 

Kellie Carter from across the street, gazed at him 
with eyes of resentment as he frolicked daintily past. 
She and Dot had been the closest of bosom friends, 
and she saw at a glance that she had a dangerous 
rival in this little white handful of fluffy dog that was 
already beginning to fill such a big place in Dot’s 
heart. 


CHAPTER III 


“CINDERELLA ” 

“ Oh, please, Dearie, I don’t want to go,” pleaded 
Dot. 

“ I* wish you need not, chickie, but I’m afraid 
it would make unpleasant feeling if you refused. 
You see, Mrs. Carter made sure, as she always does, 
that you had nothing else to do before she asked you 
and if you offered an excuse now it would look as if 
you were envious and mean-spirited and couldn’t bear 
to see Nellie enjoy anything you couldn’t share.” 

The tears started to Dot’s eyes. “ I’m not envious, 
Dearie, honest and true I’m not, but it’s no fun to 
have to go over there and see Nellie dressed every 
time she goes to a party. And then, when she’s done 
and the carriage comes, I just have to turn round and 
walk home all alone. I’m glad for Nellie to have 
good times, really I am, and I don’t mind it that she 
goes to more parties than I do, but I wish her mother 
wouldn’t ask me over to see her dressed, so there ! ” 

Dearie turned her face away to hide a sympathetic 

smile. She, too, wished Mrs. Carter would not make 
29 


30 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

such a point of asking Dot to play Cinderella, while 
Kellie was being adorned like one of the “ proud 
sisters ” to go to the ball. But since she did ask her 
and Dot had no excuse for declining the invitation, 
why, the only thing that remained was for her to ac- 
cept with the best possible grace. 

“And I do hope it’s going to be good for her char- 
acter,” thought Dearie pitifully, “ for I can see myself 
it’s a real trial and ; no fun’ as Dot says. I suppose 
it will teach her self-control and — and — a great many 
other valuable lessons, but somehow, I can’t feel that 
Mrs. Carter is called upon to help discipline our Dot. 
I really believe that the next time she suggests it I’ll 
refuse for the child myself and put an end to the 
whole annoying business.” 

But ^n the meantime Dot was compelled to keep 
to her promise to “ run over and stay a little while 
with Kellie” that afternoon. It was some comfort to 
her that she could hold Chiffon in her arms during the 
ordeal, and she cuddled him close as she sat perched 
up in a chair in the corner of Kellie’s room, to be 
“ out of the way,” as Anna the nurse said. 

“ See my new stockings,” cried Kellie, waving 
them excitedly about her head as she returned from 
her bath. “ Don’t you wish they were yours ? 


Dearie, Dot and the Dog 31 


They’re solid silk and cost lots and lots, and I have 
brand new slippers too, with straps across the ankles 
and canning steel buckles in front.” 

“ They’re perfectly dear,” said Dot sincerely, though 
with something of an effort. 

It gave Nellie a double share of pleasure in her 
possessions to have Dot sitting there and watching 
her as she displayed them, and she pranced about 
nimbly in a gale of delight, until Mrs. Carter and 
Anna had to hold her down and laughingly threaten 
to tie her to her chair if she did not sit still and allow 
them to fix her hair properly. 

“You will like to see Nellie’s new party-dress, 
Dot,” announced Mrs. Carter in her clear, hard voice, 
which was so different from Dearie’s clear, soft one. 
“Of course a child like you couldn’t be expected 
to know that all the lace on it is real, but your 
mamma and your auntie would, and they could tell 
you that it is a very handsome frock indeed.” 

“ O, I think it’s perfectly lovely,” said Cinderella 
from her corner, gazing up at the fleecy, filmy thing 
with eyes full of admiration. “ It’s the prettiest dress 
I ever saw.” 

“ I think it’s lots nicer than my last one,” announced 
the “ proud sister,” loftily. “ And I thought that was 


3 2 


Dearie, Dot and the Dog 

just too sweet for anything when it was new. The 
dress you had on at Gretchen Lewis’s party hadn’t 
any lace on it at all, Dot, had it ? ” 

“ N — no. Only embroidery,” returned Dot. 

“Your mamma likes simple things, she says,” Mrs. 
Carter put in, as she fastened Nellie’s hair-ribbon and 
stuck a pin in it to keep it firm. “ Too bad ! You’d 
rather she didn’t, wouldn’t you ? ” 

Somehow Dot felt, she could not have told why, 
that Mrs. Carter’ s words carried a sort of sting and 
sneer in them, and yet they were innocent enough in 
themselves as any one could hear. Her chin lifted a 
little and her eyes were very bright as she said 
proudly : 

“ I think what my mamma thinks is perfectly right, 
and if she doesn’t want to have me wear fancy things 
I’d just as lief not.” 

Mrs. Carter and Anna exchanged glances. 

“ That’s right ! Stick up for your mother,” cried 
Nellie in a smothered voice from a billow of lace, as 
the wonderful party-dress was slipped over her head. 
“She always does that, mamma. No matter what 
Mrs. Brooke says, Dot always thinks it’s just right.” 

“ And very proper it is that she should,” returned 
Mrs. Carter, and again Dot felt offended by her words, 


33 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

although she could not have explained why. But this 
time she pursed her lips together and did not say any- 
thing in return. She simply bent over Chiffon who 
lay asleep in her lap, and tried to hide the angry Hush 
in her cheeks in his silky coat. 

She drew a deep sigh of relief when the carriage 
was announced, and was so glad to be free to run 
away to the shelter of home that she quite forgot to feel 
left out in the cold when Nellie skipped blithely down- 
stairs crying, “ Good-bye, everybody ! I’m going to 
have a lovely time ! Don’t you wish you were 
going ? ” 

Dearie was out when Dot got back to the house, 
but pretty Aunt Bessie, Uncle Will Brooke’s young 
wife was in the sitting-room, and the little girl ran 
gayly out to greet her. 

“ Oh, I’m so glad, I’m so glad you’ve come,” she 
cried hospitably. 

“ And where have you been all the time I’ve been 
waiting here for you ? ” demanded Aunt Bessie. “ And 
what is this you have in your arms ?” 

“ I’ve been over across the way — at Nellie Carter’s,” 
replied Dot in a whirl. “And this is iny new dog. 
Isn’t he a dear, darling thing? Ilis name is Chiffon, 
and he belonged to a lady who went away on the same 


34 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

ship mamma was on. But she was late — I mean the 
lady was — and her husband is a minister somewhere, 
and they only just managed to get aboard the boat 
and Chiffon was left behind, and it sailed away and 
he sat on a big standing-up log of wood at the end of 
that big wooden thing in the water where we were 
and waved his hands — paws, I mean — and begged. 
And then I spoke to him and he liked me and the lady 
and gentleman turned around when the ship did and 
she made motions that I could have him to keep — I 
mean, Chiffon to keep — and he likes liver, and Dearie 
says he must eat bread and gravy, and the dog-man 
thinks he’s a very fine puppy, and that if we don’t look 
out some one may carry him off — I mean, may carry 
the puppy off, not the dog-man.” „ 

Mrs. Brooke laughed merrily. “ Oh, I understand 
perfectly,” she assured Dot with a mischievous pinch 
of her chin. “ As you tell it one couldn’t possibly get 
confused. And so you and Chiffon have just been 
making an afternoon call ? ” 

Dot’s face clouded over in an instant. “We went 
to Nellie Carter’s,” she replied with an effort. 

“And who is Nellie Carter, I wonder?” 

“ She lives across the street and she’s my best 
friend.” 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 35 

“ Indeed ! And what brought you home so early ? 
When I was a little girl I never came back until the 
last gun fired — I mean till the last moment.” 

“ Oh — I — she — you see, I only went over there to — 
to — look at her dress for the party,” admitted Dot 
with an effort. 

Young Mrs. Brooke’s eyes twinkled with amuse- 
ment. “ Only went over to look at her dress for the 
party ? ” she repeated. “ Dear me, that must have 
been rather tiresome, I should think. Why didn’t you 
go to the party, too ? ” 

“ I don’t know the little girl who is having it — that 
is, not very well. She didn’t ask me.” 

“ And do you like to go over and watch Nellie dress 
for parties you’re not invited to ? ” enquired sprightly 
Aunt Bessie injudiciously. 

“N — no. Not very much,” confessed Dot hesi- 
tatingly. “But her mother always asks me, and 
mamma and Dearie think I have to go.” 

Young Mrs. Brooke’s bright eyes flashed with sud- 
den spirit. 

“ Well, it’s a shame, that’s my opinion ! ” she broke 
out impulsively, looking very much like a flushed, 
angry child herself. “ I declare it is. To make you go 
over there and see her get ready for a good time all by 


36 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

herself ! And then have her ride away and leave you 
to come home alone — I don’t wonder you don’t like it. 
I should just hate it myself and I am amazed at your 
mother and Dearie for making you.” 

Never in all her life before had Dot felt the slight- 
est doubt of her mother’s and Dearie’s perfect justice 
toward her, but now, all in a moment she felt herself 
abused and unfairly treated, and in a sudden outburst of 
confidence she opened her heart to Aunt Bessie and told 
her all her grievances. How she “hadn’t any ring at 
all ” while Nellie had three. How Mrs. Carter liked 
to make Nellie’s dresses “fancy ” and her own mother 
“ wouldn’t let her have but just a hem to her clothes 
and only plain embroidery on her party-dress,” and how 
she wished she didn’t have to go over and see Nellie 
dress for things she could not go to herself. She did 
not feel at all as if she were talking to “ a grown-up 
young lady,” for Aunt Bessie looked so girlish and 
little and was so interested and sympathetic that she 
seemed as companionable as Nellie herself and was 
not, as a matter of fact, a bit more reasonable. Aunt 
Bessie was a spoiled child : the only daughter of 
moneyed parents and no wish of hers, foolish or other- 
wise, had ever been ungratified. At heart she was 
generous, affectionate and loyal, but she had never 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 37 

been taught self-denial nor self-control, and she 
showed the effects of it. 

“ Why, you poor little soul,” she exclaimed, in a 
tone Dot had never heard her mother or Dearie use, 
“you don’t mean to say you want a ring and haven’t 
got one ! I never heard of such a thing ! It’s per- 
fectly tragic ! But never mind ! It’s all right now. 
I’ll give you one myself ! ” 

With a quick, impulsive little gesture she stripped 
off her dainty gloves and held her two white, dim- 
pled hands outspread for Dot to see. The fourth and 
little fingers of each were loaded down with rings set 
with precious stones which sparkled and danced in the 
sunlight. 

Dot gazed at them in wonder and admiration. 

“Now, honey, take your choice of any of these 
pinkey-rings,” directed the fairy god-mother, cheer- 
ily. “ You can have whichever you want and I 
reckon any one of them will be worth more than all 
three put together belonging to your friend across the 
street. Here’s a half-hoop of little diamonds and 
rubies. Do you like it ? And here’s another with a 
couple of small pearls and a turquoise. How’s that ? 
Slip them on your finger, pussy, and get the effect.” 

Dot hardly dared breathe she was so astonished, 


38 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

but she did as she was bidden and then stood speech- 
less, her eyes glued to the gleaming gems that — 
wonder of wonders! might be her very own. 

Aunt Bessie laughed with sheer delight. Somehow 
she felt as she had used to feel, not so many years ago, 
when she was a little girl herself and had dressed her 
handsomest doll in all sorts of elaborate finery pre- 
tending it was alive and could appreciate its splendor. 

This present dolly was very much alive indeed and 
at the sight of her appreciation a new thought popped 
into Aunt Bessie’s busy brain. She clapped her hands 
together delightedly. 

“ I know what we’ll do ! ” she announced to the 
astonished Dot. “ It’ll be the greatest fun in the 
world! We’ll have a party of our very own, at my 
house! The splendidest party } r ou ever saw! And 
Nellie Carter sha’n’t come to it — not one single step ! 
And you shall have a frock with lace on it — every bit 
as good as hers and better — and silk stockings and 
slippers and — I’ll give them to you myself and 
Dearie can’t possibly object because, you see, I’m 
your very own, brand-new auntie and almost as much 
relation to you as she is herself. And when the time 
comes you shall ask Nellie Carter to come over and 
see you dress — turn about is fair play, and then you 


39 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

shall roll off in your own carriage — mine, you know — 
and she shall be left behind for a change. It’s a 
poor rule that won’t work both ways — but I guess 
you’d better not tell Dearie anything about that part 
of it, for she and your mother have quaint ideas about 
bringing you up and of course it’s right that you 
should be ladylike and kind and generous and all that 
sort of thing, and they are perfectly lovely women 
themselves, there’s no doubt about that, but for my 
part I never did believe it was necessary to let other 
people ride over me and boast and swagger, and I 
not do a thing in return, and so we’ll just keep this a 
secret between our two selves and I warrant Mrs. 
Carter won’t invite you over there again for the 
express purpose of making you envious and miser- 
able.” 

Dot’s head swam ! 

A splendid party of her very own ! At Aunt 
Bessie’s new house ! A frock with real lace on it ! 
and tucks ! better than Nellie’s ! Silk stockings ! and 
slippers ! A ring with precious stones in it — to keep 
forever and ever as her very own ! A carriage to roll 
away in ! Cinderella could hardly believe her ears ! 
It was all just exactly like a wonderful story out of a 
book where everything happened precisely as one 


40 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

wanted it to and the naughty ones got paid off in the 
end as thej^ deserved. 

The fairy god-mother saw that Cinderella was 
fairly bewildered by all her unexpected good-fortune 
and her great blue eyes glowed with satisfaction 
at the success of her plan, while she did not stop for a 
moment to think that she might really be injuring 
the little girl whom she so much wished to please. 

She bade Dot good-bye with a kiss and a smile and 
a wave of the hand, and rolled off in her brougham 
in a very happy frame of mind, quite approving 
of herself and feeling she had done a very excellent 
thing indeed. 

But Dearie, when she came home and saw the 
beautiful ring gleaming on Dot’s finger and heard her 
descriptions of the dress Aunt Bessie had promised 
and the party she was going to give, shook her head 
in perplexity. She could not offend Aunt Bessie 
by refusing her favors, but she thought such valuable 
jewels out of place on a little girl’s hand and she 
utterly disapproved of the rest when they were to be 
arranged for the express purpose of “ paying off ” 
Nellie. 

Dot never suspected it, but Dearie saw through 
the whole thing in a minute and chose to keep her 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 41 

own counsel only because she really, loved the two 
naughty conspirators and wanted to give them a 
chance to redeem their good characters by thinking 
better, of their own accord, of their unworthy plan. 
But would they do it ? That was the question. 


CHAPTER IV 


PREPARATIONS 

Aunt Bessie began to prepare for her “spite- 
party,” as Dearie called it in her mind, with all 
the good-nature in the world and soon got so ab- 
sorbed in her arrangements for making a number 
of children happy that she quite forgot that the 
point of it all was to make one child miserable. She 
flew about from shop to shop in a delightful flurry of 
hospitable excitement and every one in her household 
as well as in her family was pressed into active 
service. Her mother, stout, big-hearted Mrs. Hunt- 
ley, grew quite short of breath and red in the face in 
her attempts to keep up with the pace, but she per- 
sisted bravely and was so clever about suggesting im- 
provements and new ideas for entertainment and 
offering to pay for them out of her own pocketbook, 
no matter how much they cost, that Aunt Bessie was 
quite charmed and found her an invaluable assistant. 

“ While we’re at it, darlin’, it’s my advice to do it 
as handsomely as it can be done,” the portly lady 
announced on more than one occasion, when even her 
42 


43 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

lavish little daughter hesitated at some quite un- 
necessary expense. “We haven’t had a child in the 
family since you were one and I declare it does 
my heart good. After all there’s nothin’ that’s quite 

so satisfactory as children They do enjoy things 

so much that it pays for all one’s trouble just to 
see how pleased they are. Besides they’re such inno- 
cent, guileless little things ! They never bear ill-will 
or are envious or mean-spirited as we grown folks—* 
that call ourselves their betters — often are.” And 
Aunt Bessie, forgetting all about Nellie Carter, 
nodded her head sagely and assented, “ Oh, no 
indeed ! ” with the warmest of enthusiasm. 

Perhaps Dearie might have had a different tale 
to tell if her opinion had been asked, for she was 
watching Dot closely these days and what she saw 
would not have led her to agree with Mrs. Huntley. 

The day after “ proud sister ” Nellie had been 
driven away to her “ball” in triumph, leaving Cin- 
derella Dot, as she thought, to return home disconso- 
late, she came over to Dot’s house to tell her about 
the fun she had had and the bon-bons and favors 
she had received. 

“You never did in all your born days, see such 
a lovely party,” she announced exultantly, almost 


44 


Dearie, Dot and the Dog 

before she got inside the door. “ We had games and 
everything you can think of and a lot of men playing 

a real orchestra— and Why ! what’s that you’ve 

got on your finger, Dot ? ” 

Dot had been smoothing Chiffon’s white coat but at 
Nellie’s words she stopped and gazed down at her left 
hand with a little air of sudden surprise and pre- 
tended unconcern. 

“ What ? O, this ? Why — it’s only a ring,” she 
returned, as if it were of no importance at all and she 
wanted to hear more about the party. 

Nellie bent over and examined it eagerly. 

“It isn’t yours?” she said, half in doubt, half 
in question. 

“ Yes it is, too. You can ask Dearie if it isn’t.” 

“Why, where in the world did you get it, Dot 
Brooke ? ” 

“ My Aunt Bessie gave it to me yesterday. It was 
one of her very own and she took it off her little 
finger and it just fits me and it’s mine to keep for 
ever’n ever.” 

Nellie looked not only impressed — she looked thor- 
oughly overpowered by such splendor. All the gran- 
deur of her party vanished before the brilliance of 
this wonderful ring with its beautiful, gleaming 


45 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

stones, and she could only gaze and gaze at it and try 
to swallow down the dry lump that had risen in her 
throat and that seemed to be trying to choke her. 

Meanwhile Dot was growing bolder every minute, 
with a new sort of cold, hard courage such as she had 
never known before. She was by nature tender- 
hearted and sympathetic, and could not bear to see 
even the littlest insect suffer, but now it seemed to her 
that she would like to watch Nellie being miserable 
and would find it “ fun ” to say the things that would 
make her so. 

“My Aunt Bessie has promised me ” 

She broke off in the middle of her sentence and 
clapped her hand across her mouth. 

“ There ! Just hear me ! I was almost going to 
speak about it and it’s a secret that I promised her 1 
wouldn’t whisper to a single, living soul. But it’s the 
loveliest thing you ‘ever heard of and — I’d tell you, 
Nellie, before I’d tell anybody else.” 

“ I wish you would tell me,” urged Nellie, humbly. 
“ I’d never breathe — honest and true ! Cross my 
heart ! ” 

“ Oh, no, indeed, I couldn’t,” declared Dot stoutly. 
“ I couldn’t. But you’ll know after a little while, 
when it happens, and I just guess you’ll be surprised^! ” 


46 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

Nellie’s cariosity was tired to the boiling point. 
She teased and pestered all in vain for quite a quarter 
of an hour, and then all of a sudden she dropped the 
subject, and to Dot’s surprise and annoyance, did not 
bring it up again but went home very soon after with 
her chin in the air. 

“ Well, pussy, did you have a nice time with Nellie 
this morning ? ” asked Dearie at luncheon-time Avhen 
Dot came in a little late, looking fretful and discon- 
tented, with Chiffon following, unnoticed, after. 

“ N— no.” 

“ What seemed to be the trouble ? ” 

“ Oh, nothing much — only she — she bragged about 
the party and I — I don’t think it’s very nice to brag 
about the things you’ve been to, do you, Dearie ? ” 

Dearie smiled. “ Decidedly not ! ” she said with a 
heartiness that made Dot’s heavy spirits rise. But 
they dropped immediately after with a great plunge 
when Dearie added cheerfully: “Nor about the 
things you’re going to, either. Nor about what you 
have or are expecting to have, not about anything at 
all, in fact. I don’t think bragging is ever nice and 
I’m sure nobody who knows how vulgar and offensive 
it is will ever do it.” 

Dot twirled her ring about her linger in silence and 


47 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

looked down glumly at her plate while Chiffon 
squatted beside her chair and begged piteously to a 
perfectly unresponsive little mistress. 

Aunt Bessie came early, in the afternoon to carry 
Dot off to be measured for her frock and Dearie let 
them drive away without once attempting to inter- 
fere with the gay plans they were making for “ clouds 
of lace ” and “ miles of tucking,” and all the rest of 
the extravagant impossibilities that she and Dot’s 
mother so heartily disapproved of. 

So the days passed by and the time for the spite- 
party drew near. Dot waited until the proper mo- 
ment and then with a guilty conscience and a thump- 
ing heart she went over to Nellie’s house and asked 
to see Mrs. Carter. 

There was a visitor in the sitting-room, and the 
presence of this strange lady made Dot feel more 
awkward than ever about her errand. 

“ My — my auntie — she — wants to know,” she began 
in a halting whisper and with a great effort, — “ my 
auntie — she wants to know if Nellie can come over to 
my house this afternoon.” 

“Why, yes, of course she can,” assented Mrs. 
Carter cordially turning from her guest for a moment 
and taking Dot’s hand in hers in a friendly fashion 


48 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

which was- quite unusual with her. “ Tell Dearie I 
thank her very much for her invitation and Nellie 
will be pleased to go.” 

Dot looked at the floor and swallowed hard. Her 
words stuck in her throat and she choked over them, 
even if they were, as she told herself, “ not a really, 
truly fib, for when she said her 4 auntie ’ she was 
thinking of Aunt Bessie, and if Mrs. Carter thought 
she meant Dearie, why, she couldn’t help it, could 
she?” She took care, however, not to promise to 
carry the reply to a message which had never been sent. 

“And what are you and Nellie going to do, I won- 
der? Going to give a doll’s afternoon-tea ? Or just 
have games and a good time generally out of doors ? ” 
continued Nellie’s mother affably. 

“No — ’m. We’re — we’re — I mean — I — I’m going 
to a party and — and — p’raps Nellie’d like to come 
over and see me dress.” It was out at last. 

. Mrs. Carter’s dark eyebrows drew together in a 
quick little frown of displeasure as she dropped Dot’s 
hand with a sort of fling. She saw at once that this 
was a clear case of paying back old scores and though 
she knew very well that she had been to blame in the 
first place, she deeply resented what plainly was an 
attempt on Dearie’s part at retaliation. But she had 


49 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

been fairly caught in her own trap and she could not 
get out of it without openly admitting that she had 
deliberately asked Dot to do something she was not 
willing to demand of Nellie. 

“ Oh, indeed ! So you’re going to a party, are 
you ? ” she said with a cold smile. 

“ Yes, at my Aunt Bessie’s,” replied Dot hastily, 
standing uneasily on one foot in her shyest attitude 
and showing quite plainly how anxious she was to get 
away. 

“Your — Aunt Bessie,” repeated Mrs. Carter, hesi- 
tating over the name as if it were entirely unfamiliar 
to her. “I — oh, yes, I remember now. You mean 
your Uncle Will’s wife, I suppose,” and then she 
turned her back squarely upon Dot and addressed 
herself to the lady beside her, as if Dot were not 
present to hear what she was saying. “Will Brooke 
married Miss Huntley about a year ago — Bessie 
Huntley, daughter of Henry D. Huntley, the railroad 
man, you know. You probably remember the wed- 
ding — the papers were full of it at the time. Very 
rich and — frightfully ordinary. I’ve often seen the 
mother. Fat — with a red face — a foolish old thing, I 
fancy, but good-natured and kind-hearted enough, if 
she is shoddy.” 


50 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

Dot slipped out of the room with her cheeks 
ablaze. She did not understand what “ordinary” 
and “ shoddy ” meantj but she felt they must be very 
uncomplimentary terms from the tone in which Mrs. 
Carter uttered them and her heart was brimming over 
with indignation and shame. She could hardly crush 
back the tears as she went slowly home, and when 
Chiffon met her at the door with a sharp bark of wel- 
come and a loving flicker of his tasselled tail, she gave 
way entirely, buried her face in his flossy coat and 
treated him to quite a shower-bath of hot, angry 
tears. She found Dearie in her own little bedroom 
busily engaged in getting her things ready for the 
afternoon. The wonderful new frock had arrived 
while she was across the street and now the sight of 
it as Dearie lifted it from its tissue-paper wrappings 
dried her tears in a twinkling. 

“O, Dearie, Dearie, isn’t it a darling? Isn’t it a 
beauty?” she cried excitedly, dancing around and 
around the fascinating box in a fever of delight. 

Dearie smiled. “ I’m glad you like it,” she replied 
simply. 

Surely never before had a little girl had a gift of 
such delicate, dainty finery as this. There were splen- 
did openwork silk stockings and tiny slippers with 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 51 

wee straps that crossed over the instep and fastened 
with a turquoise buckle at the ankle. There was a 
turquoise locket on a gold chain to hang about her 
neck and half a dozen little turquoise buttons for the 
back of her dress. Nothing was lacking. Every- 
thing had been remembered. Even to a handkerchief 
as line as a spider’s web and about as big. The only 
fault t'o be found with the collection was that it was 
altogether too splendid. Dearie sighed as she thought 
of Dot’s mother and her dislike of anything that 
looked boastful and extravagant. What would she 
have said to all this ? 

Dot could hardly swallow her luncheon, she was in 
such a state of happy excitement, and as for Chiffon, 
to his unspeakable disgust he had had to submit to 
another bath when his last was still fresh in his 
memory and nothing in the way of mere bread-and- 
milk could divert him when he felt as uncomfortably 
sleek and damp as this. 

So Dearie was the only one left who really enjoyed 
her food, and for the sake of. her restless little com- 
panions she swallowed it hastily to return to the more 
absorbing occupation of getting ready for the party. 

It was only on such occasions as this that Dot could 
be prevailed upon to take an afternoon nap, but now 


5 2 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

she and Chiffon curled up luxuriously on Dearie’s 
couch and actually drifted off into a delicious doze to 
the accompaniment of Dearie’s low-pitched monoto- 
nous voice reading aloud to them in a drowsy under- 
tone. 

They had been asleep an hour or more when there 
was the sound of a timid, reluctant knock upon the 
door. Dearie tiptoed to the threshold expecting to 
lind Ellen with some message or other from Katy 
about the butcher or the grocer and was much sur- 
prised to see, instead, Nellie Carter, looking anything 
but happy and saying in a low, sullen voice : 

“My mother said I was to come over ’cause you 
wanted me to see Dot dress for the party.” 

Even Nellie could not but notice the involun- 
tary start of surprise Dearie gave at her words, but 
she had no time to wonder at it before she felt her 
kind hand on her shoulder and heard her kind voice 
whispering in her ear: 

“Dot is taking a nap, dear, but she will be sure to 
wake up in a minute or so and then we can all have a 
nice little visit together — you and she and Chiffon 
and I.” 

Somehow or other Nellie could never nurse her ill- 
nature long when Dearie was around. She had such 


53 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

a bright, cheery way of talking to you and such a 
kind and trustful way of looking straight into your 
eyes — it seemed to sweeten the bitterest mood. J ust 
now Kellie’s mood was very bitter indeed, but little 
by little it gave way under the influence of Dearie’s 
friendliness and she found herself listening to stories 
of Chiffon’s tricks and manners and really enjoying 
them when, a few moments before she had thought 
in her envious little heart that she should never be 
able to enjoy anything again. 

Dot awakened to find the two chatting and 
laughing gaily together and it was only when she 
herself jumped up with a bound of happy excitement 
crying out that Kellie must come and see her lovely 
new things for the party, that the old scowl returned 
and the sullen frown which had challenged Dearie at 
the door. They did not fade by any means at sight 
of the treasures lying outspread upon the counterpane, 
but for some reason or other Dearie did not interfere 
to banish them this time and Dot was too full of her 
own pleasure and importance to notice anything be- 
side. She was in fact so taken up with them that the 
clock had struck half-past three before she realized 
that Dearie had not done the slightest thing on her 
own account in the way of getting ready for the 


54 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

party. “ O, Dearie, dear,” she cried wringing her 
hands in real distress. “ It begins at four and you 
haven’t even begun to dress — and Aunt Bessie said 
very particularly you were to come and so did 

Mrs. Huntley — and we’ll be late and — and ” 

Dearie broke in upon her bewailings with a smile 
of reassurance. “ Don’t worry, dear, you’ll not be 
late,” she said simply. “ When the carriage comes 
you will be ready and can go at once. But I shall 
ask you to make my excuses to Aunt Bessie — I am 
very sorry and disappointed but I am compelled to 
stay at home and send you alone. I cannot go to the 
party.” 


CHAPTEB Y 


THE SPITE-PARTY 

Dot could hardly believe her ears. Dearie not 
going to the party after she had faithfully promised 
Aunt Bessie that she would ! Dearie who never 
broke her word ! Somehow, all in a moment Dot 
felt her spirits sink down, down, down as low as they 
could possibly get and even the captivating little blue 
buckles on the straps of her slippers did not seem 
to be able to hold them back. Her chin began to 
quiver. 

Dearie gave Chiffon’s flossy white coat one last 
good brush for full measure, pressed down and run- 
ning over, tied a coquettish pink ribbon about his 
neck and let him go free to prance wildly about the 
room in a great state of excitement over his festive 
appearance. As far as could be seen the little dog 
was the only one that seemed to be genuinely enjoy- 
ing himself. Dearie was smiling to be sure, but her 
smile was not of the customary “ really truly ” sort 
that had a twinkle in the eye of it. Nellie was hav- 
ing a hard struggle to keep the tears back and her 
55 


56 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

face was flushed and sulky with the effort and Dot 
was pale and trembling from disappointment and 
regret — for half the fun was in having Dearie go too 
— and now Dearie was not going. 

“ O Dearie, you must ! ” she burst out at last in a 
voice which sounded strangely like a sob. “ Why 
you must, }^ou must ! You promised Aunt Bessie, 
you know, and you can’t break your word. It would 
be just awful !-” 

It looked as if in another moment there might be 
active work for the spider-web handkerchief to do, 
but at Dearie’s first words all hint of tears vanished 
from Dot’s eyes and they were bright and large with 
something else instead. 

“ I am much sorrier than you can possibly be, Dot, 
that I am compelled to break my promise,” Dearie 
explained, “ but I am sure Aunt Bessie will excuse me 
when she learns the reason of my staying at home. 
You see, I did not know when I told her I would 
come that you were going to make an engagement 
for me here — but since you have done so, why, there 
is nothing left for me but to keep it, of course.” 

Dot’s mouth opened wide in amazement. She did 
not understand. What in the world did Dearie 
mean ? She gazed at her in dumb astonishment and 


57 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

then, all at once, as her eyes followed Dearie’s and 
fell upon Nellie she comprehended. It was exactly 
as if Dearie had spoken aloud and said : 

“You invited your friend over here in my name ; 
told her mother I wanted to know if she could come, 
and so I have got to take the consequences and stay 
at home and entertain her. But if you think I am 
going to tell her you fibbed and put you to shame be- 
fore her you are very much mistaken. I love you and 
I do not want to have any one know you would be 
guilty of an untruth, but when a wrong is done some- 
body has got to pay the penalty and this time I will 
pay it in your place . . . only please be good 

enough not to complain.” 

It was all over in a flash and Nellie, sitting there 
choking back her envious tears, did not see that any- 
thing unusual was happening, but she jumped to her 
feet with a sudden bounce of quick delight as Dot 
cried out vehemently : 

“It’s my party! Aunt Bessie said it was! She 
said I could invite any one I wanted to. And so } r ou 
run home this minute, Nellie Carter, and ask your 
mother to dress you as quick as ever she can ’cause 
when the carriage comes you’re to go in it to the 
party with Dearie and me.” 


58 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

The last words were hardly out of her mouth when 
Nellie was dashing homeward on her joyful errand. 

Dearie caught Dot up in her arms for a moment, 
fuss, feathers and all, and hugged her close. “ That’s 
my good girl again,” she said happily as she flew to 
her room and tried to make up for lost time by a 
“ lightning-change ” of costume. 

How they managed it was never explained, but 
both Dearie and Nellie were ready and waiting when 
the carriage arrived, and the only one who was left 
behind was Mrs. Carter, who waved good-bye to them 
from the front door and did not look in the least ag- 
grieved at having to make her way home alone. 

Kind, gracious little Aunt Bessie put Dearie and 
Dot at their ease at once by welcoming Nellie most 
cordially, and Nellie, for her part, fell in love with 
her blithe young hostess on the spot. 

“ She’s just too sweet for anything,” she whispered 
in Dot’s ear as they sat together in a cushioned cor- 
ner, resting from their exertions in one game and pre- 
paring for another. “ When I’m a grown-up young 
lady I want to be just exactly like her.” 

“ Dearie .is every bit as good,” exclaimed Dot 
staunchly. 

“ O, of course ! Dearie is perfectly splendid. I 


59 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

only meant your Aunt Bessie is so kind of cute and 
cunning and she has such lovely things. This is the 
most splendiferous party I ever went to. A real awn- 
ing out in the street and such stacks and stacks of 
flowers ! ” 

Before Dot could arrange her face to look suffi- 
ciently unconcerned and as if such things were merely 
ordinary every-day affairs and not worth mentioning, 
another game was started and the two were whisked 
off in opposite directions to join in the sport and keep 
the ball rolling. Such fun as they had and such won- 
derful surprises ! Everything they played held a gift 
for the child who excelled in it, so it was twice as ex- 
citing as when it was done the ordinary way. The 
thimble they “ hunted ” was of “ solid gold ” and fell 
to the share of the little girl who found it the most 
number of times. The handkerchief they “ dropped ” 
was a dainty, embroidered affair with lace at the edge, 
and was given to the child who picked it up the often- 
est. There was a ring in a cake and all sorts of treas- 
ures in a Jack Horner pie, and if any one went away 
without a prize it was certainly not Aunt Bessie’s 
fault. 

It was quite impossible for Dot to refrain from 
sending Nellie a telegraphic glance every once in a 


6o Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

while which said as plainly as words, “ Aren’t you 
having a perfectly lovely time ? ” to which Nellie re- 
sponded with the answering message, “ I should think 
so ! It’s just too much fun for anything.” 

They forgot they were rivals. Nellie did not have 
time to remember, in the pleasure she was having, 
that Dot’s dress was “ fancier” than her own, and Dot 
herself never thought of it for an instant until she was 
reminded in a way that made her cheeks burn. 

Uncle Will came in while the party was in full 
swing and Dot, who adored him, almost twisted her 
neck out of joint in her efforts to catch his eye, from 
her faraway place in a corner, from which she could 
not escape until “ Puss ” should be off her guard. But 
when she had succeeded in attracting his attention, lo 
and behold ! he glanced at her quite unconcernedly, 
and then looked away again without the slightest sign 
of pleasure or recognition. Dot felt her face flush and 
her eyes fill. She knew, of course, that it was a mis- 
take, and that somehow or other he had not realized 
that the little girl who was smiling and nodding to 
him so affectionately was her very own self, and yet it 
hurt “ way deep down ” to have him give her the same 
sort of look he was giving the rest of the party, none 
of whom was his own niece at all. As soon as the 



“THIS CANNOT BE MY DOT” 


















Dearie , Dot and the Dog 61 

game was finished she made her way to where he was 
standing, talking and laughing gaily with Dearie and 
Aunt Bess, and slipped her hand into his with an eager, 
anxious little gesture. His large fingers closed about 
her small ones in a moment, and he whisked her around 
in front of him, his eyes all alight with fun and fond- 
ness, and his voice full of jolly welcome, as he cried 
out: “Well, here she is at last! I was wondering 
where she was hiding.” 

But the instant his glance fell full upon her his 
whole expression changed. His eyebrows went up 
and he gave a long, low whistle of disapprobation. 

“ Phew-w ! What in the world is this ? ” he ex- 
claimed, holding her out at arm’s length and scanning 
her critically from head to toe. “ Surely this can’t 
be my Dot, rigged up in such a nonsensical fashion ! 
Why, I declare I didn’t know her ! For pity’s sake, 
Dearie, what have you been doing to the child ? She 
doesn’t look like herself at all. What’s the trouble ? ” 

It was a difficult moment for everybody. Dot felt 
wounded and disappointed and ashamed, all at one 
and the same time ; Dearie looked embarrassed and 
Aunt Bessie turned quite scarlet in a self-conscious, 
guilty sort of way. 

“ What do you mean, Will ? ” she demanded quickly 


62 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

and with a pout of annoyance. “ Dot looks very nice, 
I’m sure. I chose her dress myself. Dearie had noth- 
ing at all to do with it, and every one can see that it’s 
most expensive. It has a lot of lace and handwork 
on it and 

Uncle Will looked down affectionately at his little 
wife and gave her a cheery smile, which was meant to 
take the sting out of his words : 

“ That’s where the fault lies, little lady,” he ex- 
claimed. “ As you say, * every one can see that it is 
most expensive.’ According to my idea it would be 
better if they couldn’t. I don’t like showy, flashy 
things. Forgive me if I say I think Dot is over- 
dressed and that this party is overdone. One can 
have too much even of a good thing, you know. 
You are the kindest little woman in the world and 
Dot is the dearest little girl, and I know that neither 
of you want to make a boast of what you’ve got — 
but when you struggle to wear the richest-looking 
clothes and give the most expensive parties in town, I 
must admit it seems as if you did. At any rate I like 
my Dot better in the pretty, simple things she usually 
wears, and I hope when she puts on this fussy, preten- 
tious affair again she’ll let me know and give me the 
chance to get out of the way.” 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 63 

As he spoke he gave the dimple in Dot’s chin a 
playful pinch, but somehow she could not smile and 
was just beginning to feel exceedingly solemn when 
supper was announced and Uncle Will made them all 

laugh in spite of themselves by saying he was like the 

* 

“ Young man so benighted 
Who never knew when he was slighted. 

He went to a party and ate just as hearty 
As if he’d been really invited.” 

The children were all vastly amused by his drolleries 
as he led the march into the supper-room with Chiffon 
for a partner. But they soon forgot everything else 
in the wonderful feast they found awaiting them 
there. It was the crowning glory of the evening and 
Aunt Bessie’s face grew merry again as she saw how 
much the children enjoyed it. As for Dearie, she felt 
at peace with herself and all the world. It did her 
heart good to watch Auntie Bess hovering about 
Nellie and Dot to make sure they were well supplied 
with goodies while they sat side by side chattering in 
the most intimate and friendly fashion possible, quite 
forgetful of the fact that this was the famous “ spite- 
party ” which had been made for the express purpose 
of paying back old injuries and squaring old slights. 


CHAPTEK VI 


“MRS. HITCHCOCK AND MRS. BROWN” 

But neither dogs nor dresses, rings nor parties can 
till the place of an absent mamma, and there were 
many, many hours when Dot felt such a loneliness 
and mother-want that she had all she could do to keep 
from giving up in despair and making everybody as 
miserable as she was herself. 

The long, loving letters which presently began to 
arrive were some comfort to be sure and it grew to be 
the great excitement of the week to watch for “ steamer- 
days ” and the postman’s whistle. Dearie hunted up 
a large atlas and together she and Dot followed the 
traveler on her journey in a way that proved to be al- 
together delightful. While she was crossing the 
water they filled up the time by reading books of the 
sea, telling of all sorts of wonderful creatures which 
live in the depths of the ocean and about the marvel- 
ous flowers which grow in its bed as well as the 
pearls for which divers risk their lives. 

Then, when land was reached, they traced her way 
64 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 65 

upon the map learning the names of the countries 
through which she passed and their principal cities 
.and some of the most interesting things concerning 
their history. It was like a long, continuous story 
with plenty of illustrations, for Dearie took care al- 
ways to get books which were richly besprinkled with 
pictures which Dot could examine to her heart’s con- 
tent as she sat in Dearie’s lap or looked over her 
elbow as she read aloud. Then, too, there were the 
letters they themselves sent abroad and which cost a 
deal of time and trouble to write. Dot was not very 
fond of anything over which she had to labor particu- 
larly, but while Dearie was quite willing to help her 
with her letters she refused point-blank to write them 
for her. 

“No, little lazybones,” she said, laughing at the 
rueful expression of Dot’s face. “ You must do it 
yourself. I can’t be your amanuensis. If you want 
to get letters you must do something to earn them.” 

“ But my thumb aches,” wailed Dot dolefully. 

“We’ll put some arnica on it,” returned Dearie, 
amused at her excuse and taking out the pen and 
paper without delay. 

“ I’ve told her all about Chiffon and the party,” 
said Dot listlessly. “ I told her all about them in my 


66 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

other letters. I haven’t got anything left to write 
about.” 

But somehow or other with hints and sugges- 
tions from Dearie the letter was written at last and 
then Dot cast herself languidly on the couch and 
hid her face in the cushions while Chiffon leaped up 
beside her and tried to show his sympathy by licking 
her ear. 

But when Nellie came in soon after, Dot’s spirits 
seemed to revive and Dearie shook her head over 
children’s whims as she saw how the two were sitting 
with their heads close together and whispering eagerly 
in a way which warned her secrets were afoot. 

“How many’ve you got?” demanded Nellie in 
Dot’s ear, and with a side glance at Dearie to see if 
she could overhear. 

“My little work-bag full,” replied Dot promptly. 
“ Katy preserved a lot and a lot the other day and 
she let me have all the stones and I smashed ’em with 
the big hatchet out in the back yard and I’ve got the 
most pits you ever saw.” 

“Well, I guess you’ve got rnore’h I have. But we 
must take ’em when they’re fresh. I don’t believe 
the man would want to buy ’em if they are dry and 
shriveled up.” 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 67 

“ O dear ! ” said Dot, with a sudden qualm of doubt. 
“ Suppose it isn’t true ! Are you certain sure drug- 
gists will buy peach-pits, Nellie ? What do they do 
with them ? ” 

“ I don’t know. Make medicine-stuff, I guess. 
Anyhow, Mary Post told me her brother told her 
that he and another boy sold a lot once and got real 
money for them.” 

“ O goody ! I hope they’ll buy ours. I want 
awfully much to give Dearie a surprise for her birth- 
day and I haven’t got any money ’xcept what’s in 
my bank and she won’t let me touch that.” 

“ Will she let you go to-morrow morning ? ” 

“ You ask her, bimeby, and if she will I’ll come 
over to your house right after breakfast. I want to 
tell you about my thumb. It hurts dreadfully. I 
pounded it with the hatchet as hard as ever I could 
the other day and it keeps throbbing worse and worse 
every minute.” 

“ P’raps it’s a runaround,” suggested Nellie cheer- 
fully. “I had one once and it pained me so I just 
screamed like anything. If Dearie’ll let you go don’t 
you forget to come over to my house to-morrow 
morning the first thing. It’s an awfully long way to 
walk down to the druggist that buys them, and we’ll 


68 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

have to start early. I’ve got to go now, ’cause my 
mother said I could only stay five minutes.” 

“Dear me,” said Dearie, as she saw their visitor 
getting ready to depart. “ This is an unusually short 
call. Must you really hurry away so soon ? ” 

“ Yes’m. My mother told me to. I only came 
over to see if Dot could go on an errand with me to- 
morrow morning.” 

“Why, yes, of course she can. I suppose it’s an 
errand for your mother and quite in the neighbor- 
hood. Of course you understand I shouldn’t like Dot 
to go very far from home unless there were some 
grown-up person with her.” 

Nellie wove her fingers together as if she were 
getting ready to play “ Here’s the church and here’s 
the steeple,” but she said nothing. She was thinking : 

“ I’m not telling a story. She said she s’posed it 
wasn’t far and I can’t help it if she s’poses wrong. 
We’re big enough to take care of ourselves now any- 
way — Dot’s most nine and I’m eleven — and it’s ridicu- 
lous to make such a fuss about Dot’s going very far 
from home unless there’s some one grown-up with 
her. I guess I know enough to take care of myself, 
even if she doesn’t, so there ! ” 

The next morning the two children started out 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 69 

bright and early. Dot had much trouble to slip away 
without Chiffon’s knowledge, but Nellie had expressly 
said she didn’t want him tagging along and so, though 
it hurt his mistress to desert him, she was compelled to 
do so and to comfort herself with the thought that he 
would probably be much better off where he was. It 
was a bright, warm day and the two set out at a 
brisk trot. 

“ Isn’t it fun to be going down town all alone b\^ 
ourselves? ” asked Nellie, giving a little skip of satis- 
faction. “ I feel just as grown-up as I can feel. 
When I step down the curbstones my dress almost 
touches at the back, you watch and see if it doesn’t. 
And at the party that time I looked in the big mirror 
and my head came pretty nearly up to your Aunt 
Bessie’s ear. Let’s play we’re real grown-up young 
ladies going down town to buy things for our 
families.” 

“ All right,” acquiesced Dot, but in a half-hearted, 
dejected sort of way which was not at all inspiriting 
to Nellie. The fact was, her thumb was paining so 
sharply that only the wild excitement of this secret 
expedition kept her courage up and the tears of agony 
from starting to her eyes. However, she kept even 
pace with Nellie and they carried on a lively conver- 


70 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

sation as “Mrs. Hitchcock” and “Mrs. Brown” lor 
the two good miles which lay between home and the 
place where the druggist lived whom Mary Post's 
brother had told about. 

“My little girl, Violet, needs a new dress terribly 
much,” said Mrs. Nellie Hitchcock busily, as they 
trotted comfortably along. “ Her old one is all worn 
out and besides she never liked it. I guess I’ll buy 
her a spandy new one to-day and take it home for a 
surprise.* Doesn’t your Lilly need another dress, Mrs. 
Brown ? I thought hers looked fearful shabby in the 
back, the last time she came over to play with 
Violet.” 

“ Yes, indeed, I know it. But I don’t believe I can 
afford to get her a new one. I made a whole lot of 
peach preserves the other day and Mr. Brown he said 
they cost so much he guessed we’d have to wait until 
he could earn some more money before he could buy 
Lilly any new clothes.” 

“ O, dear me, you don’t say so ! I’m surprised to 
hear it ! But that doesn’t make any difference. You 
come into this place with me and you won’t have to 
pay any money at all, ’cause we run a bill here and 
they let us have everything we want for nothing.” 

Mrs. Brown hesitated and drew back as Mrs. Hitch- 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 71 

cock actually led the way through the entrance of a 
very imposing shop, but that lady was by this time 
so taken up with her idea, that she not alone went on 
determinedly herself but dragged her friend behind 
her in spite of her timid whispered protests, saying 
resolutely : 

“ Oh, pooh ! Don’t be a ’fraid-cat ! Come ahead ! ” 

As it happened the place was almost deserted. It 
was late in the season and early in the day and 
the few shoppers that remained in town *had not 
as yet arrived in any force. The clerks stood behind 
their counters idly talking together or busying them- 
selves rearranging their stock. 

Mrs. Hitchcock sauntered leisurely along the aisles 
in exact imitation of her mother, looking about her, 
full of a serious interest in all the articles she saw dis- 
played and pausing every now and then to finger this 
material or to examine that “ bargain ” with the 
air of an experienced shopper. Mrs. Brown was 
too much over-awed to do anything but meekly 
follow her leader, and the two made their way in this 
order down the whole length of the spacious room. 

“ Goodness me, Mrs. Brown,” said Mrs. Hitchcock 
at length, turning quickly around and addressing her 
friend so suddenly that she made her jump. “Just 


7 2 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

look at that beautiful stuff ! It’s the nicest color 
I ever saw and I have a good mind to buy it for 
Yiolet this minute.” 

The two salesmen behind the counter before which 
she stood overheard her words and winked to each 
other solemnly above her head. They had nothing 
particular to do and were quite willing, for the 
fun of the thing, to enter into the game which 
they saw was afoot. 

“ It’s an excellent material, ma’am,” said one, hold- 
ing it out enticingly and shaking it into attractive 
folds. “ And you’ll find it wears like iron.” 

Mrs. Hitchcock was a trifle startled but she recov- 
ered herself at once and proceeded to scramble up 
upon the revolving stool before her, leaving Mrs. 
Brown to follow her example. 

“ Yes, you’ll find it will wear like iron,” repeated 
the salesman, giving the goods another cheerful 
shake. 

“Have you got forty yards of it?” inquired Mrs. 
Hitchcock, after she had made sure of her balance on 
the high stool. 

“Forty yards ? Oh, I shouldn’t wonder.” 

“Well, I must have forty yards for a dress for my 
little girl, Yiolet,” Mrs. Hitchcock explained. “But * 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 73 

if you haven’t got ’em, I might look at something 
else.” 

That was the beginning. Mrs. Hitchcock and Mrs. 
Brown remained for an hour at the counter, examin- 
ing materials and making remarks, while the sales- 
man joined in the game and carried it on with 
the greatest zest. He found it harder work to keep a 
straight face at some of the serious observations 
of his customers than he did to lift down the heavy 
rolls of materials they desired to examine, but he gal- 
lantly did his part, and when the ladies at last 
scrambled off their perches assuring him that they 
would have to go now because their children would 
get into mischief if they didn’t, he bowed in the 
gravest of manners and said he would be sure to send 
them their goods by telegraph as soon as the messen- 
ger could tie them up and that he hoped they would 
find them satisfactory. 

The next errand was to the drug-man, but as it 
happened, this gentleman was not in a playful mood 
that morning, and he looked so forbidding when 
he discovered that the newcomers wanted to sell 
peach-pits instead of buy soda-water, that he quite 
glowered at them over the counter, making Mrs. Brown 
quail and even Mrs. Hitchcock turn a shade paler. 


74 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

“No, I don’t want to buy any peach-pits,” he 
growled, in a deep, husky voice. “ And you’d better 
run along home to your mothers, both of you. This 
is my busy day.” 

But Mrs. Hitchcock was not to be so easily disposed 
of. 

“ Mary Post’s brother said he and another boy sold 
you some,” she insisted obstinately. 

The gruff man scowled at her darkly. “Well, 
I can’t help it if he did. I haven’t any use for 
peach-pits.” 

Mrs. Brown’s chin quivered, and she took up the 
bag she had so hopefully laid upon the counter with a 
sigh of heavy disappointment and prepared to go. 

“We came down here — it’s miles and miles off 
front where we live,” continued Mrs. Hitchcock, per- 
sistently, “ because Mary Post she told us you would 
buy ’em.” 

The druggist glanced down at trembling Mrs. 
Brown. 

“Is that full of peach-pits?” he demanded, sweep- 
ing a gesture toward her bag. 

“ Yes’m — I mean sir. I smashed ’em myself and 
they’re not dried up a bit, see?” 

She held out her treasures timidly and in an instant 


75 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

the sternness had all vanished from the cross man’s 
eyes leaving them as kind and trustable as anybody’s 
else. He thrust out his hand and grasped, not her 
bag, but her wrist. 

“ What’s this ? ” he demanded gently, raising her 
hand and closely examining her thumb. 

“ I hammered it and it hurts,” she replied, with a 
great effort not to cry, because she was tired and in 
pain and he was looking so sorry for her. 

“Why, bless your heart, you poor youngster, I be- 
lieve you. Of course it does,” he exclaimed heartily. 
“It’s kind of hard luck to have hammered a hurt on 
yourself like that and then get nothing for your pains. 
I believe I will buy your peach-pits after all. What’ll 
you take for ’em ? A bright new dime, eh ? But if 
I give as much as that you’ll have to let me put a 
plaster on that thumb of yours. I’ve got the best sort 
of a plaster you ever saw. A real beauty. Just you 
wait a minute and I’ll go and get it and we’ll clap it 
round and then by and by your thumb will be bet- 
ter.” 

As he spoke he disappeared at the back of the shop 
and Mrs. Hitchcock and Mrs. Brown were left to look 
triumphantly at each other in speechless delight at 
the unexpected good fortune which had befallen them 


76 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

and to begin considering all the wonders such a mine 
of’ riches would enable them to perform. 

Dot almost forgot her pain in the pleasure of plan- 
ning the splendid birthday surprise she intended to 
make for Dearie and before she fairly knew it the 
drug-man had come back holding the plaster spread 
out upon his palm. 

It hurt her badly when he touched the sick finger, 
but she pressed her lips together tight and shut her 
eyes fast to keep back the groan and the tears which 
threatened to escape. 

“ There now, it’s all over and you’re as brave as a 
soldier,” declared the drug-man after a moment. “I’d 
like to warrant you never had on a nicer plaster than 
this in all your life. When you get home I want you 
to ask your doctor if it isn’t a fine one. And here’s a 
piece of rock-candy for you, for being so plucky. But 
if I Avere you I wouldn’t try to sell things again 
unless my mother gave me leave. You mightn’t fare 
so well the next time. Good-bye to you ! Here — 
don’t go away and forget your monejr ! That’s it ! 
A dime for each and the rock-candy besides for the 
young lady with the hurt thumb. Good-bye ! ” 

As Mrs. Hitchcock and Mrs. Brown passed out of 
the door murmuring their grateful “ Oh, thank you ! 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 77 

Good-bye ! Good-bye ! ” the drug-man turned to his 
clerk and said : 

“ I tell you what it is, I’m downright sorry for that 
poor youngster. She’s going to have a tough time 
with that thumb of hers. It’ll have to be a heap 
Avorse before it’s any better. Unless I’m very much 
mistaken she’s fixing for a felon.” 


CHAPTER V II 


ON THE WAY HOME 

“ Did you ever?” demanded Nellie as soon as they 
were out upon the street once more. 

“ Wasn’t he kind ? ” said Dot. 

“I’m going to buy a doll with my money. One of 
those lovely jointed ones with real hair — that you can 
dress and the clothes will take off.” 

Curiously enough the distance seemed double as 
great going back as it had been coming. They 
walked and walked and still the way stretched end- 
lessly on. It was midday and the sun blazed down 
hot and merciless upon the blistering pavement below. 
Dot felt faint from the glare and heat and pain and 
weariness, and Nellie was cross from hunger. 

u Oh, dear me, slow-poke ! Why don’t you hurry ?” 
she exclaimed at last, turning on Dot in fretful impa- 
tience and venting her peevishness on the readiest 
object at hand. 

“ I’m hurrying all I can,” returned Dot reproach- 
fully. “ I guess I want to get home as much as you 
do.” 


78 


79 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

“ You don’t, either. You just lag and lag and lag, 
and I have to keep back ’cause you’re such a great 
baby you don’t know the way alone.” 

“I’m no more a baby than you are. You can go 
ahead by yourself if you want to.” 

“ Pooh ! ” 

They walked on for some time in moody silence, 
Dot trying with all her might to keep up with Kellie 
who had broken into a sort of run and was getting 
further ahead every minute. But it was no use. Her 
feet would not go fast enough and at last she had to 
give it up. Bright specif were dancing before her 
eyes and a buzzing sound was in her ears. She stood 
still and tried to shut out the sunlight by pressing her 
well hand across her forehead. When she took it 
away and opened her eyes again Kellie was nowhere 
to be seen. 

A great wave of homesickness swept over Dot. 
Her mother had never seemed so far away nor Dearie 
half so dear, and now all alone she was not sure she 
knew the way home. 

In the meantime a spirit of naughty mischief had 
taken possession of Kellie. 

“ Huh ! ” said she to herself. “ Dot thinks she’s 
mighty smart, but she is nothing but a great baby 


80 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

and she doesn’t know her way home alone a bit. 
She’s a regular little ’f raid-cat too. Never would 
have got any money for her peach-pits if I hadn’t kept 
speaking to the man. Wonder what she’d do if I was 
to skip into a doorway and hide when she wasn’t 
looking and make believe I’d run away. It would 
plague her like anything for she’d be scared to death 
and wouldn’t know where I’d gone.” 

She had not really intended to try the trick, but be- 
fore she was fairly able to realize what she was doing 
she had skipped into a doorway and was pressing back 

ao-ainst the wall in order to screen herself from view 

* 

when Dot should pass by. But she waited and waited 
in vain. Dot did not pass by. 

“ Slow-poke ! ” Nellie snapped out crossly at length 
as she leaned forward stealthily and peeped down the 
street to see how near at hand the laggard might 
chance to be. But no sign of her was anywhere to be 
discovered and after a moment of eager gazing this 
way and that Nellie left her hiding-place and ran out 
into the street in a sudden hot fever of fear. 

Suppose Dot had turned the wrong corner ! Sup 
pose a kidnapper had carried her off ! All in an 
instant Nellie seemed to realize how fond she was of 
her little playmate and how terribly she would feel if 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 81 

any harm had come to her. A hundred sweet, 
friendly memories came thronging to her mind and 
every one was a fresh stab. The time Dot had 
“stood up for her” when big, rough David Nash 
tried to spoil her pin wheel store and said she was a 
“ Proudy.” The times she had “ given in ” and taken 
the parts in their play which Nellie was unwilling to 
take ; the times she had given the bigger half of some 
“ treat ” to Nellie instead of keeping it herself and 
last of all, the time she had taken her to Aunt 
Bessie’s party when she might so easily have “ paid 
her back ” for the many occasions when Nellie had 
flaunted her own better luck in Dot’s face and driven 
off (there was no denying it) exultant because she was 
leaving her little friend behind. It all came over her 
now with sickening distinctness and she wanted to 
run and run to escape from it. But where should she 
run to ? Home ? Iler mother would punish her 
severely when she knew what she had done. To 
Dot’s house ? She could not bear the thought of 
Dearie’s distress when she learned that Dot was 
lost. 

For the first time in Nellie’s life she knew what it 
meant to be shut out from the love and good opinion 
of one’s friends ; to be a sufferer because of one’s own 


82 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

ill-doing. She gritted her teeth tight and gulped 
back the great lump of misery that was choking her. 
Then suddenly she tossed back her head and set off in 
a quick run back along the way she had come. She 
meant to search for Dot and find her if she could. 
No matter about her being hungry! No matter 
about her being hot and tired ! She would not rest 
until she had undone the mischief she had made and 
could face the world again. 

The point where the children had parted was, in 
reality not very far from home. A half-dozen blocks 
or so and a couple of turns would have brought them 
safely back, but Dot did not know this and when she 
saw no trace of Nellie her timid heart sank into her 
boots and she would have wrung her hands in despair 
if her sick thumb had not prevented it. 

“ O dear ! O dear ! ” she wailed to herself. 
“ Whatever shall I do ? I had no business to let Nellie 
think that I knew the way home. It wasn’t the truth 
a bit. But she called me a baby and it made me 
cross. I wish we hadn’t quarreled together. I don’t 
want to be un-friends with Nellie. Only she tantalizes 
me so it seems as if I couldn’t stand it. And now — 
and now ” 

Suddenly she felt her 3un-dazzled eyes grow blurred 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 83 

and the white, dancing specks that troubled her so 
were blotted out for a moment. But when she 
brushed away the mist, one of the white specks still 
remained, dancing about her feet and dashing up 
against her dress. She wondered why it had not 
disappeared with the rest and tried, a little dizzily 
to push it away, but in a twinkling it had leaped 
almost into her arms, uttering a sharp, rapturous 
bark that sounded exactly like “ Dot ! Dot ! ” and 
she knew that now she had a friend close at hand 
who would not desert her. 

“Oh, you dear Chiffon! You darling dog!” she 
cried brokenly, stooping down and hugging him 
jo} f ously, never stopping to think in her pleasure at 
seeing him, how it came about that he had escaped 
from the house and was running such dangers in the 
street, alone.' Chiffon leaped and frolicked about her 
feet for a moment in a frenzy of sheer delight and 
then set off in a quick scamper up the street, inviting 
her with every turn of his mischievous little head to 
beat him in a race. Tiretl as she was she did not dare 
refuse his challenge for she dreaded every minute to 
see the “ dreadful man ” the dog-fancier had spoken 
of dart out from some hidden ambush and spirit her 
precious puppy away. So after him she dashed, as 


84 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

fast as her feet would carry her and in a twinkling he 
had led her around the corner, across the park and 
into a street which she knew quite well. She gave a 
quick, breathless little gasp of relief. Could it be 
that she was safe ? She was familiar with the 
neighborhood now and could easily find her wa} r 
home from here. A few more blocks and she would 
be in Dearie’s arms. The comforting thought gave 
her strength to make a last frantic dash after Chiffon. 
He pelted on, she followed and lo ! there they were 
at the very house and Chiffon was squatting, short- 
breathed but triumphant on the door-step. 

Dearie met them in the hall as soon as Dot’s feeble 
ring of the bell had been answered and not a word of 
rebuke did she utter though it was quite plain to be 
seen that she had been deeply worried and anxious. 

“How flushed you are,” she said kindty, laying a 
loving hand against Dot’s burning cheek. “ The heat 
and glare in the street are frightful to-day. I am 
glad to get you safely home and out of the sun.” 

“Thanks be!” murmured Ellen as she made her 
way down to the kitchen and Katy a minute later, 
“ That little varmint of a dog is safe and sound. An’ 
me havin’ the connipshuns over’m for fear he was 
lost entirely an’ then what ’ud the child say ? For 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 85 

she told me to keep um safe an’ tight an’ out of the airy 
an’ not let u-m loose, an’ bad luck to it ! before I knew 
I’d opened the airy -gate to say a word to Sammy 
Bonto an’ if the rare little puppy wasn’t through it 
like a flash ! It’s a small imp he is, to be sure, an’ 
him alookin’ as innocint and helpless as a white baa- 
lamb in a toy-store winder.” 

Katy laughed and set the pitcherful of lemonade 
she had just made upon the ice to cool. 

“ You’re in luck this time, Ellen,” she replied. 
“But when you’ve a streak of greased lightnin’ to 
deal wit’ you better keep your mind on it.” 

Something of the kind may have been passing in 
Dearie’s thoughts as she stripped off Dot’s steaming 
garments and sponged her hot, feverish little body 
with comforting tepid water. But she knew that this 
was not the time to reason with the runaway, when 
plainly she was quite upset and exhausted by her ex- 
perience whatever it had been. 

“Why, sweetheart, what is this?” she asked as she 
came to the grimy hand with the clumsy plaster dec- 
orating the thumb, which Dot had succeeded in hid- 
ing out of sight until now. 

“I — I — my thumb has got a sore place on it and 
the drug-man he put a plaster ’round it.” 


86 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

“ What ilrug-man ? ” 

“The one Nellie and I went to. We-— we” — and 
then out came the whole story — all except the part 
where Nellie had run away from her. For some rea- 
son or other Dot did not tell of that and later she was 
glad. 

Dearie hardly knew what to do. She was annoyed 
and amused and grieved and touched all at one and 
the same time. There was not the slightest doubt 
that Dot had been very naughty to go so far away 
when she knew it was against orders and she had 
been acting a falsehood when she stood by and said 
nothing when Nellie let Dearie “ suppose ” her errand 
was in the neighborhood. But she had wanted to 
give Dearie a pleasure, a surprise, she had not in- 
tended to worry her and she had really been very 
patient and brave about her finger which she had 
hurt in a generous cause. Dearie kissed her and con- 
tented herself with saying : 

“Well, I think you won’t go away like this again, 
will you, dear ? For it is dangerous for you as well 
as unkind to me. And now that you know it is just 
as wrong to act an untruth as it is to tell one I’m sure 
you’ll be more careful another time and so we’ll not 
talk about it any more, but we’ll begin all over again, 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 87 

fresh and new, and try to do better — a great deal bet- 
ter from now on.” 

That was all, but Dot never forgot it. 

She hardly ate any luncheon, though everything 
was especially dainty and appetizing, and was glad to 
be excused from the table before the meal was over 
to lie upon the couch in the cool, dim library where 
she could prop her hand up and soothe the pain a bit 
by stroking the hot, swelled muscles of her arm. The 
quiet and the dusky coolness calmed her and by and 
by she fell into a heavy sleep — a sleep which caused 
Dearie to knit her brow anxiously when she saw it 
and at last to slip up-stairs and set the telephone bell 
to ringing. 

A big elephant was pursuing Dot in her dreams and 
she could not seem to run fast enough to escape him. 
Or was it the other way about and was she trying to 
catch up with him ? It was very confusing indeed 
for, really, she had thought he was chasing her until 
she saw him far ahead and found she was chasing him 
and Chiffon was barking at her and Nellie was laugh- 
ing. At last the elephant stopped and waved his 
trunk at her — or no ! she thought it was his trunk 
but it turned out to be forty yards of dress material 
which he said would wear like iron. But she did not 




88 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

want to buy the goods and he grew angry and shook 
them into folds and they caught on her thumb and 
wound round it tight and the elephant said it was the 
nicest plaster she had ever seen and he wound it 
round tighter and tighter till it hurt her so she cried 
out loud and then — in a breath the elephant and the 
forty yards and the plaster and Chiffon and Nellie 
had all disappeared and she was lying on the library 
couch sobbing and crying and Dr. Clark was holding 
her hand and gently uncovering her sick thumb. 

“Bad dreams?” he asked smiling down at her 
kindly. “ Well, well, we must see if we can’t stop all 
that right off. We can’t have our Dot crying out in 
her sleep, that’s very sure.” 

Dot felt Dearie’s soft hand on her forehead and 
gritted her teeth together because even the doctor’s 
gentle touch was torturing her thumb and she wanted 
to be brave and bear it “ like a soldier.” 

“ Sure enough ! That is a fine plaster,” he said as 
he bent over to examine it carefully. “ And it is a 
fine thumb too: a mighty fine thumb. But on the 
whole I think I prefer its mate — the one that keeps 
its own size and color and hasn’t grown hard and hot 
and painful. Well, now, our business is to get this 
one back to its own shape and color again, isn’t it ? 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 89 

And we can do it if we make up our minds to be pa- 
tient and courageous and as cheerful as we^ can.” 

Dot smiled through her pain and her tears and 
Dearie smiled too, though she did not feel at all 
merry. 

The doctor went away after a little while and when 
he was gone, Dearie and Dot had quite a festival all 
by themselves with ice cream and cold lemonade and 
the thinnest of wafers for refreshment. Dearie pre- 
tended she was “ story-reader to the queen ” and that 
Dot was the queen whom the story-reader was to en- 
tertain and the game proved so satisfactory that it 
was kept up until six o’clock and was only interrupted 
then by the loud, sharp ringing of the door-bell and, 
a moment later, the hasty entrance of Mrs. Carter 
who burst into the library crying out in a high, angry 
voice full of fretful worriment : 

“ Dot Brooke, tell me this minute, where is Nellie? 
She went off with you this morning and she hasn’t 
been seen since, and — and I just got home myself five 
minutes ago — I have been out all day — and it’s getting 
late and I don’t know what has become of her, and 
you must tell me directly — just as fast as you can — for 
if she is lost — O Dot, please tell me where Nellie is ! ” 


CHAPTER VIII 


BEING BRAVE 

Dot did not reply at once. She was too surprised 
and confused. Nellie not home yet ? What could it 
mean ? She knew her way about perfectly and so she 
could not have been lost ! What could have happened 
to her? It had never occurred to Dot that Nellie 
might not be safe and sound at home. But since she 
was not safe and sound at home, where was she ? 

“ O Dot, please tell me where Nellie is,” repeated 
Mrs. Carter, gazing helplessly and imploringly into 
the little girl’s troubled eyes. 

Dearie had laid down her book as soon as the door 
opened, and now she closed it softly and slipped a 
tender, encouraging hand into Dot’s, which was trem 
bling violently. 

“I — I don’t know.” 

“ Why, you must know, that’s all there is about it,” 
insisted Mrs. Carter hysterically. “You and Nellie 
went out together this morning, and it stands to rea- 
son that you must know better than an} 7 one else 
where she is.” 


90 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 91 

“ I don’t,” whispered Dot in real terror. “ I hon- 
estly, truly don’t.” 

“ Where was Nellie when you saw her last ? ” en- 
quired Dearie gently. 

“ In the street.” 

“ What street ? ” 

“ I don’t know. It was down a lot of blocks, and 
then across the park, and then around a corner.” 

“ That doesn’t help us in the least,” said Mrs. Car- 
ter impatiently. “ Why didn’t you keep together ? 
Where did Nellie go ? ” 

“ I don’t know,” repeated Dot. “ We were talking 
and then she — hurried a little — and the sun got in my 
eyes — and — I couldn’t go very fast — and the next 
thing I knew I looked up and Nellie wasn’t there.” 

Mrs. Carter cast a glance of indignant appeal at 
Dearie as much as to say: “Won’t you please make 
that child tell the truth ? I’m sure she knows more 
than she is admitting.” 

But Dearie did not meet the look, and only stroked 
Dot’s hand more tenderly than ever. 

“ Mr. Carter is half distracted,” broke out Nellie’s 
mother complainingly. “ He’s telephoning right and 
[eft — to all the police stations and everywhere. He 
will never forgive me if anything has happened to the 


92 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

child, though mercy knows I am not to blame. It’s 
Anna’s place to look after her, and if she’s as careless 
as this she’ll have to go, that’s all. But you ought to 
have known better, Dot, than to have left Nellie in 
the street. It was exceedingly wrong of you, and if 
you were my child I would punish you severely.” 

Dot turned her face to the couch cushion and cried 
softly into the fluffy down while Chiffon, who felt that 
something was amiss somewhere, lifted himself up out 
of her arm and barked savagely at Mrs. Carter. It 
was impossible to see his attitude of reckless bravery 
without smiling, and Mrs. Carter smiled. 

“ I — I’m sorry I have been so hasty,” she said shame- 
facedly. “ I don’t at all mean what I said, only — you 
see — I’m so terribty worried. And if Dot could only 
tell me where Nellie is ” 

“ I’m very sure she would gladly do so if she could,” 
put in Dearie warmly. “ When Dot tells me she has 
no idea what has become of Nellie I believe her abso- - 
lutely.” 

“ Nellie knew her way home,” whispered Dot grate- 
fully, from the depths of her cushion. 

“And so did you, as it seems,” Mrs. Carter re- 
torted. 

For a second there was no answer to this. Then 


93 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

came a low-voiced, hesitating — “ N — no,’ 5 from the pil- 
low. “N — no. I didn’t know my way home. I let 
Nellie think that I did, but I didn’t. I told her she could 
go on if she wanted to, ’cause I knew how to get back 
alone, but it wasn’t the truth and — and — I guess I’d 
have been lost if it hadn’t been for Chiffon.” 

Mrs. Carter shrugged her shoulders in sheer discour- 
agement. “ I don’t in the least see what that has to 
do with the matter,” she broke out impatiently. 

But Dearie’s troubled eyes grew bright with relief 
because, for her part, she saw perfectly. It was quite 
clear to her that if Dot had told Nellie she knew her 
way home it was because Nellie had taunted her with 
not knowing it, and that if Dot said Nellie could go 
on if she wanted to, it was because Nellie had threat- 
ened to do precisely that thing. But though she rea- 
soned the whole thing out in her mind and felt con- 
vinced it was true, she was glad Dot was showing so 
loyal a spirit and was not being a tell-tale. 

After a little Mrs. Carter took her leave, still 
protesting and complaining and scolding and appeal- 
ing in a breath, and when she had gone, Dearie took 
up her book again. But neither she nor Dot could 
keep their minds upon the story now and at last 
it had to be laid aside because what had happened to 


94 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

the people it told about was not half so distracting as 
what might be happening to Nellie at that very 
moment. Dinner was a cheerless meal, and they 
were glad when it was over, but after it was done 
time hung heavy on their hands. 

“ If I could only do something,” sighed Dot des- 
perately. 

Dearie shook her head. “ That is the hard part of 
it,” she said. “We can’t do anything — we must 
simply ‘stand and wait.’ Sometimes patience is the 
most trying task of all. It is very difficult to have 
patience to hold one’s temper and one’s tongue and 
one’s courage when we are troubled and anxious and 
afraid. But if we succeed in doing it we have 
accomplished great things.” 

“ I know what you mean,” declared Dot, after 
a moment of musing. “When you thought I had 
been to blame this morning you weren’t cross and 
scolding a bit. You were having patience, weren’t 
you ? ” 

“ I was trying to,” said Dearie. 

“And the time of the party when you thought 
you’d have to stay home and amuse Nellie — because 
I ” 


“ Yes,” nodded Dearie, 


95 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

“I want to tell you something,” whispered Dot 
shyly. “ I want to tell you that — that — I’m so glad 
you aren’t like Mrs. Carter.” 

Dearie found it hard to restrain a smile, but all she 
said was, “Well, honey, I’m glad you prefer me, but 
Mrs, Carter is a very good woman at heart, though 

she is a trilie hasty at times. She Hark ! 

what’s that ?” 

It was the door-bell sounding faint and muffled 
through the evening stillness. Another minute and 
there was a buzz of smothered voices in the hall. 
Dearie and Dot jumped to their feet and ran 
anxiously to the door, their faces white as chalk and 
their hearts beating like trip-hammers. 

“ What is it, oh what is it ? ” Dot cried breathlessly, 
the thought of harm to Nellie clutching at her heart. 

“ Dot — oh, Dot ! ” came pantingly from a little 
shadow behind Ellen and in another moment Nellie, 
pale and haggard, dusty and exhausted had rushed 
forward, flung herself, bodily upon Dot and was 
crying quite wildly in tearful, broken gasps : 

“ You’re safe ! You’re safe ! You aren’t lost after 
all! I’ve been hunting for you everywhere! All 
day long — ever since. And I couldn’t find you — and 
I thought you didn’t know the way home and I said 


c/> Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

you were a baby — and you aren’t and I’m sorry — and 
I didn’t want to come home till I had you safe but — 
but — I couldn’t find you and it grew so late and — I 
knew Dearie would be worried, but I thought that 
perhaps if I came back and told her you were lost she 
— they could maybe — find ” 

While Dearie rushed across to the Carters’ to tell 
the good news Dot and Nellie clung together laugh- 
ing and crying with joy and relief and Ellen flew 
down-stairs to get something for the famished little 
wanderer to eat. She had not had a mouthful all day 
and was weak and faint from fasting, but through it 
all she had clutched a small bundle which she now 
gave to Dot with a look of true repentance and 
apology. 

“ I bought it for you,” she declared happily. w Out 
of my own ten cents.” 

“ It ” was a small porcelain doll, with jointed limbs 
and a splendid head of golden hair. 

“ O Nellie!” cried Dot, and then she stopped short 
and just let the rest go unspoken, but Nellie under- 
stood. 

If she had not been so thoroughly worn out Nellie 
could not have helped feeling a wee bit important sit- 
ting before Dearie’s afternoon tea-table with a dainty 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 97 

dinner spread out before her, while her mother 
and father and Dearie and Dot sat about in a circle 
gazing at her thankfully and urging her to eat. But 
she was fairly exhausted with ail her adventures and 
before she had nearly cleared her plate her head was 
nodding and her eyes were dim. 

Mr. Carter gathered her up in his arms as if she 
had been a baby and marched her off home and to 
bed without more ado. 

Dot was so excited and agitated she could hardly 
sleep. 

To think of Nellie’s having gone through so much 
for her sake ! To think of her having given her 
the precious doll which she had so joyously looked 
forward to buying for herself ! It was almost unbe- 
lievable ! Dot’s own dime had lain forgotten on the 
mantelpiece all the afternoon but before she went to 
bed she lifted it carefully down and looked at it 
anxiously. It would take a great deal of thought and 
calculation to arrange a plan for making it stretch 
over Dearie’s birthday-surprise and a gift for Nellie 
too, but it must be done. She fell into a troubled 
doze wondering how it could be contrived. 

They were hard da} r s which followed, days so full 
of pain and misery for Dot that she quite forgot 


98 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

everything but her own utter wretchedness. Nellie 
and Dearie were her brave stand-bys and helped as no 
one else could have done to get her through the 
dreary time. Nellie stroked her arm by the hour, 
never tiring, never complaining, never discouraged, 
and Dearie read to them both when Dot could bear it, 
and invented new surprises for them every day. 

Then suddenly one morning Dr. Clark decided that 
if she could be very brave and courageous he could re- 
lieve her of her pain and though she felt like running 
away and hiding to escape him she sat up straight and 
held out her hand and lo ! after one minute of the 
worst agony she had ever known her thumb felt 
better. 

“ Good girl ! Brave Dot,” exclaimed the doctor 
heartily, and took a bright silver dollar out of his 
vest-pocket and gave it to her with an approving smile. 

And after that, oh dear, how she slept ! At first it 
was so beautiful to be rid of that throbbing, cutting 
pain in her thumb, that she was glad to just lie on the 
couch in Dearie’s room without any other amusement 
than listening to the lazy flies as they buzzed and 
bumped against the wire window-screens. But by 
and by she grew better and then it was hard work to 
be patient and good-humored. 


99 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

The weather was sultry and hot. Aunt Bessie and 
Uncle Will were at the seashore, Mr. and Mrs. Hunt- 
ley had gone abroad, Dearie was busy preparing to go 
to the country and when Nellie could not come over, 
there was no one left to entertain her. It was such a 
change from the time when every one had been at her 
beck and call that she often felt very much forgotten 
and was frequently inclined to fret about it. She 
could not sew for her doll because her “felon-finger” 
was still covered with clumsy plasters and most of the 
games she liked to play required the use of both 
hands. Then, in the midst of her discontent came the 
remembrance of Dearie’s birthday and instantly all 
her moodiness vanished in the fascinating excitement 
of preparing for the surprise she had planned. 

Dearie had taken charge of the precious dollar 
at Dot’s request because it seemed to be too great 
a fortune to be left unguarded, and ought not to be 
broken into for any celebration less important than 
papa’s and mamma’s coming home, so the dime was 
really all she could count on to defray the expenses 
of Dearie’s party and Nellie’s gift. It was certainly 
a problem. 

She made a bargain with Katy for a fair exchange 
of labor by which she was to “ answer ” the trouble- 


100 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

some basement bell for a whole day and in return 
Katy was to make her a cake with raisins and citron 
in it and white icing on top, for whoever heard of a 
birthday without a birthday-cake ? Dot discovered, 
when she came to try it, that her part of the contract 
was no joke. It seemed to her that the bell never 
stopped ringing for a moment and she had not fairly 
gotten rid of one intruder before another appeared. 
The letter-carrier, the grocer, the butcher and the 
fishman : peddlars, tramps and people who wanted 
to know the number of the house and if Mrs. Some- 
body-or-other whom Dot had never heard of, 
lived here. They kept on in a steady stream all day 
long. 

Dot had sometimes thought Katy was “ cross ” 
when she went down into the kitchen to ask her for 
an extra treat for Chiffon, but now she did not wonder 
at it. The distance from the kitchen to the basement- 
door seemed to grow and grow the oftener she had to 
cover it and by noon she felt she had walked un- 
counted miles, so often had she trotted back and 
forth. The butcher and the grocer and that sort of 
people were just tiresome ; the peddlars were often 
irritating ; the beggars were sometimes interesting, 
but the tramps were always alarming. 


101 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

“You keep the iron gate tight shut until you know 
what they want,” cautioned Katy, “and if you get 
nervous just you holler for me.” 

“ O, I don’t really get scared,” Dot replied, stoutly. 
“ But some of them don’t look pleasant. Only one 
was really nice and I wished I could have given him 
something. He said he was a poor man who hadn’t any 
wife or children to support him and that if it wasn’t 
for what kind people gave him to eat he’d starve. lie 
was interested in Chiffon and asked me about him 
and he remarked complimentary things about my hair 
and called me ‘ little lady.’ It seems pitiful that he 
should be a tramp, he’s so polite.” 

Katy sniffed. “ Altogether too polite,” she re- 
turned. “I wisht I’d been there to see him.” 

“ Why ? ” asked Dot. 

“ O, I don’t know. I’d have liked to see what such 
a dreadful polite man looked like.” 

“ I can tell you just how he looks,” cried Dot, eager 
to satisfy her curiosity. “His hair was sort of red 
and curly and he had freckles all over his face 
and he limped. But he wasn’t very ragged or dirty 
either.” 

“Well, you try an’ remember him so you’d know 
him again if you saw him,” instructed Katy, and then 


102 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

she put some dishes on the dumb-waiter and told Dot 
she could run up-stairs now because luncheon was 
ready. 


CHAPTER IX 


A NEW FRIEND 

Dearie declared it was the most delightful surprise 
she had ever had in all her life. In the first place the 
nursery was “all darkened up” with shutters closed 
and shades drawn. Two wax candles slightly warped 
by the heat shed a mysterious and beautiful glow 
upon a festive-looking table in the centre of the room. 
The table was covered with a fine white cloth which 
only a too-inquisitive person would have discovered 
was a towel, and on it were displayed a superb birth- 
day cake with icing on top and citron and raisins in- 
side; a splendid lamp-mat made by weaving worsted 
through a spool and sewing the result of the operation 
round and round on itself, pan-cake shape ; four beau- 
tiful spools of sewing silk (they came four for five 
cents because they were a little soiled on the outside 
but that did not matter since it was easy to pull the 
dingy part off) and a most elaborate book-mark made 
of perforated cardboard and ribbon. Dearie was 
deeply touched by the thought of all this richness be- 
103 


104 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

ing for her and Dot quite glowed with satisfaction as 
she saw how much her efforts were appreciated. 
Nellie stood by assisting the hostess to “receive,” and 
every time Dearie grew enthusiastic over her treasures 
she and Dot would nudge each other and laugh de- 
lightedly from sheer gratification over the success of 
the celebration. 

“I never had such a happy birthday,” declared 
Dearie as she gazed down affectionately upon her 
gifts and the glowing face of their maker. “ It is as- 
tonishing how you have managed to think of just pre- 
cisely the things I really ought to have. That lamp- 
mat will be so useful ! And the book-mark ! What 
a beauty it is ! And such remarkable silks ! I never 
saw more brilliant shades ! Magenta and green and 
purple and yellow ! I should never in the world have 
thought of buying them and now if I should need 
them it will be so convenient to have them in the 
house ! ” 

Dot was enchanted. It seemed she had succeeded 
even beyond her dearest hopes. And in the excite- 
ment of the moment she had forgotten one of the 
most important features of the entertainment. She 
made a dash for the table and brought forth a parcel 
very daintily tied with a braided cord made of ma- 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 105 

genta, green, purple and yellow silk strands, and 
handed it to Nellie. 

“ O goody ! ” said Nellie, much surprised by her un- 
expected share in the program. 

Dot hopped up and down while Nellie untied the 
string and took the cover off the mysterious box. 

“ Why, Dot Brooke ! ” cried Nellie, “ whatever 
under the sun do you mean? You’re not giving me 
all your silks ? The very best ones you’ve saved up 
and been so proud of? Why, I never! The ones 
your Aunt Bessie gave you and all? That beauty 
white silk with the pink roses on it, just like painting 
that you said was going to be made into a best ball- 
dress for your new doll ? ” 

“ Look more ! Look more ! ” shouted Dot ecstatic- 
ally. 

Nellie dived deeper into the treasure-trunk and 
came to a hard little package wrapped up by itself. 
“What can it possibly be?” she repeated again and 
again as she struggled with the strings. It was a 
porcelain doll with jointed limbs and a head of golden 
hair, just the very thing Nellie had been longing for 
and it was only a little smaller than the one she had 
given Dot. 

“I wish it was bigger,” said Dot apologetically as 


io6 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


Nellie clapped her hands in delight. “ But I hadn’t 
but five cents to spend and so I made it up on the 
silks and now we. can play house together and it will 
be perfectly even for, you see, your doll won’t be so 
big as my doll and mine won’t have as nice clothes as 
yours.” 

The two wax candles had, up to this time done their 
duty bravely, but now the warm enthusiasm of the 
company or something else must have affected them 
so strongly that all at once their hearts melted within 
them and with a last weak flicker they collapsed en- 
tirely and had to be blown out. 

The party had proved such a brilliant success how- 
ever that a little accident such as this could not dim 
its luster even though the birthday-cake had to be 
eaten in common, unromantic daylight. Dearie 
opened the blinds and a fine draught of fresh air 
came wafting in. 

“ The wind has changed,” she said. “ And we’ll 
have a comfortable night and probably a cool day to- 
morrow to travel in.” 

“ I just hate to have you go away,” declared Nellie 
in a sudden burst of good-feeling. 

“ But you’re going yourself, next week.” 

“ I know it, only it won’t be to the same place and 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 107 

the girls that’ll be there won’t be half as nice as you 
are.” 

Dot shot a radiant look at Dearie. This praise 
from reticent Nellie repaid her for all her trouble and 
sacrifice. 

The next day Ellen pulled down the green window- 
shades and shut the inner blinds tight, Katy saw that 
the kitchen region was safe and fast and bolted the 
area-gate and Dearie turned the key in the front door 
and locked it behind them. 

They were off to the country ! 

Chiffon behaved, all things considered, very well in 
the cars. To be sure, he barked indignantly at the 
conductor every time he attempted to examine their 
tickets and sat up and begged most shamelessly for 
chicken when the boy with the sandwiches went his 
rounds, but with these exceptions he was a model dog 
and his little owner was proud of him. 

The color which had faded from Dot’s cheeks 
during her sickness returned before her first week in 
the country was over. Such glorious times as she 
had, riding on top of the towering hay -loads and 
wading in the shallow brook ! learning to climb 
cherry-trees and reveling in the feasts she had 
among the loaded branches. She found an oriole’s 


io8 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

nest hanging from the lowest bough of a young 
apple-tree in the orchard and it was great fun to 
watch the wonders which took place in that curi- 
ous little home. First the pretty delicate eggs, and 
then the ugly, skinny little birds with their big 
yellow mouths continually open and yawning for 
food. But gradually a soft down began to appear 
on the naked bodies, the bright eyes opened and 
peered out at the gay green world of apple-branches 
above and then, just as the little creatures were get- 
ting “ too cute for any thing ” lo ! one day they were 
gone and the nest hung empty and forsaken. 

Dot had known of course that the babies would fly 
away as soon as they were strong enough to try their 
wings but when the time actually came she felt sadly 
lonesome and forlorn. 

Chiffon followed her everywhere, through deep 
sand and tangled underbrush and Dearie found it 
next to impossible to keep the briars out of his curly 
coat. But regularly every afternoon when Dot was 
freshly dressed in a clean white frock he was 
thoroughly brushed and combed and adorned with 
a coquettish ribbon tied in a butterfly bow just back 
of his ears and they went forth together looking like 
two of the most model young creatures imaginable, 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 109 

quite incapable of doing anything mischievous or dis- 
obedient. 

But appearances are deceitful and at the moment 
that Chiffon was looking most innocent and guileless, 
temptation overtook him and he yielded. 

It was Peter, the next-door dog who suggested the 
adventure. Dot had warned Chiffon again and again 
against Peter, saying he must not play with him be- 
cause Peter was a low-bred ill-behaved creature up 
to all sorts of dangerous pranks and he would surely 
lead Chiffon into trouble if he did not look out. But 
there was an air of rollicking boldness about Peter 
that was simply alluring to Chiffon and whenever he 
saw an opportunity he would slip away for a bark 
and a run with his fascinating friend. 

“ Ki-yi ! ” Peter had exclaimed with a grin of de- 
rision when he first saw the dainty terrier. “ Here 
comes a dear little dog — all dressed in white. 
Mamma’s precious puppy ! gentle as a lamb ! Look 
out, darling, and don’t muss your pretty curls! — Ow- 
wow ! ” 

How what could have been more humiliating than 
this ? To think that his appearance which had, up to 
now, been a source of pride to him and had always 
attracted so much flattering attention should be the 


1 io 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

cause of bringing clown upon him such contempt and 
scorn as this ! He felt all his vanity deserting him. 
II is dignity was crushed and he thought dismally that 
he would never be able to hold up his tail again. 

Peter broke into a loud u Ki-yi ! Ow-wow ! ” as 
Chiffon slunk meekly back across the lawn and into 
the shelter of Dot’s arms. All the afternoon he 
brooded over his wrongs and was glad when he heard 
some one refer to Peter as “ that cur.” But the next 
morning he found himself looking through the hedge 
into Peter’s yard with eager, wistful eyes, longing, in 
a shamefaced, foolish sort of way, that the other dog 
would come down off the porch steps where he was 
lazily snapping at flies and notice him — even if it 
were only to grin and call “Ki-yi” at him again. 
But Peter treated him with silent contempt and once 
more Chiffon slunk away downcast and forlorn. 
When Dearie began to comb and brush his flossy 
coat that afternoon he protested vigorously and 
almost squirmed out of her lap in order to escape the 
coquettish ribbon-bow which had always been his 
pride before. The fact of the matter was he wanted 
to recommend himself to Peter and if Peter disap- 
proved of spotless white and dainty adornments why 
he would do his best to avoid them. As it happened 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 1 1 1 

however he could not avoid them for Dearie was firm 
and not to be turned from her purpose. But Peter 
must have gathered Chiffon’s intention by some 
means or other for though he grinned at him later as 
he passed him on the road, the grin was a tolerant 
sort of affair and followed up by a sidelong wink 
which set Chiffon’s heart to beating with rapture and 
delightful agitation. 

After that the two of them struck up quite a 
friendship on the sly and whenever it could be 
secretly managed the terrier would slip through the 
hedge and visit his beguiling companion. 

“ Never give you meat ? ” repeated Peter one day 
when he and Chiffon were having a heart-to-heart 
talk on the further side of the veranda-steps, out of 
view of Dot’s house. “Why, I never heard of such 
a thing. What do they give you I should like to 
know ? Pap ? — Ur-r-r Yap ! ” 

“Oh, well, — not exactly — only ” 

“ But if it isn’t meat it must be pap. Pooh ! I 
wouldn’t put up with it if I were you. And they 
never let you loose in the street either ? Ili-yi — Guy ! 
What a row Pd make ! ” 

Chiffon pretended he was blinking at a fly and 
made a great show of shaking the hair out of his eyes, 


1 1 2 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

but as a matter of fact he was having all he could do 
to keep the tears back and to hide his degradation 
from the bold Peter. 

“ I tell you what it is,” said Peter after a short si- 
lence. “ Did you ever see that white cart with big 
black letters on it that goes past every day ? ” 

“ Yes. Why ? ” 

“ Well, that cart is the butcher’s wagon.” 

Chiffon waited. He was acquainted with Peter’s 
peppery temper by this time and he knew that ques- 
tions only annoyed him. When he got good and 
ready he would proceed and tell all he wanted 
to. 

“ Well, what do you say to slipping off by ourselves 
some day and following the cart and having a great 
time with all the beef and liver and bones we want ? ” 

“ O-o, Pe-ter ! ” sighed Chiffon, his breath com- 
ing quick with excitement. 

“ W e could do it, if only you had a grain of pluck 
and weren’t a poor-spirited little ‘mamma’s baby- 
dog.’ ” 

“ I ain’t! ” snapped Chiffon. 

“Well, then, you just watch for me and the next 
time I spy the butcher’s cart Pll give you a sign and 
then, if the coast is clear we’ll put for the road along 


1 '3 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

by the bushes where they can’t see us and before you 
know it we’ll be having a feast such as you never ate 
in all your born days. I’ve been there before many a 
time and I know all about it ! It’s an old story to me 
but of course I’m a dog of spirit and experience and 
have seen a lot more of life than you have, but I don't 
mind showing you how the thing is done if you have 
spunk enough to try.” 

So the plan was made and Chiffon promised faith- 
fully to await the sign from Peter and, when it came, 
to respond to it at any cost. 

“ If you don’t, after I’ve gone to all the trouble of 
making the arrangements,” threatened Peter, “ I’ll 
never bow to you again as long as I live.” 

“ O you needn’t be afraid,” Chiffon reassured him 
gallantly. 

But Chiffon was not altogether happy in his mind 
these days. In spite of Peter’s fascinations and the 
promises of sport he held out, there was something 
about him which was disquieting and worrisome. 
Still, the foolish little terrier clung to him telling 
himself that Peter was the bravest and most honest 
of dogs, greatly to be admired and much to be sympa- 
thized with for the way the neighbors abused 
him. He never allowed himself to acknowledge that 


l 14 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


Peter’s courage was merely rashness and that his 
independence was pure unruliness. He let Peter 
mislead him and alas ! he had to take the conse- 


quences. 


CHAPTER X 


TELEGRAMS 

Dot was sitting on the veranda steps playing jack- 
stones by herself and Chiffon was squatting beside 
her looking on with the greatest interest. They were 
both freshly dressed for the afternoon and looked as 
crisp and spruce as if there were no such things in the 
world as burrs and briars or mud-pies and grass stains. 

“ There! You see I’ve put ‘the chickens in the 
coop ’ and it’s awfully hard,” murmured Dot. “ Now 
you watch me put ‘the horses in the stable.’ I hold 
my hand this way and then — I catch this jack and 
shove him in there — so — and then I catch this one — 

and shove him there — so — and then ” She was 

so absorbed in her game that she did not notice that 
a wagon had turned in at the gateway and was going 
round the drive to the back of the house. But Lucy, 
the cook, was on the lookout for the butcher and she 
welcomed him with the heartiest of smiles. 

“ Well, I thought you really had gone back on us 
this time,” she said with a good-natured wink. “I 
says to Mary, says I, ‘Mr. Emmons is the dependablest 
115 


1 16 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


meat-man I know,’ I says. 4 If he passed his word to 
bring us fresh calves’ liver for our supper to-night 
he’ll keep his promise,’ says I. 4 He won’t leave us in 
the lurch with all them boarders and things to pro- 
vide for,’ I says, 4 and not a thing to give ’em unless 
he’s as good as his word,’ says I. So when you didn’t 
come in the morning as usual nor yet this afternoon 
and Mary was for conjuring up something with 
smoked beef an’ eggs, I says, 4 No, not yet, Mary. 
You wait a bit longer and Mr. Emmons’ll be here, 
sure,’ I says.” 

44 Well,” responded the butcher genially, 44 and here 
I am. I started to go my rounds this morning as cus- 
tomary, but before I got more’n half through, a man 
stopped me on a matter of a calf he wanted to sell. 
It was a special chance and I had to take it or leave 
it on the spot. I took it, and that’s what kep’ me so 
late. I had to go eight miles out to get the creetur 
and it delayed me till now. But ’s long’s I’m here in 
time no bones ’s broke.” 

Lucy laughed and Mr. Emmons hurried away, for 
he was tired and hungry and was anxious to get 
home to his own supper. Neither he nor any one else 
noticed the short, sharp 44 Yap” that sounded faintly 
from the hedge as his cart drove into the grounds, 


H7 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

and now, as it drove out again, no one noticed the 
clumsy yellow-and-black form of a mongrel that 
slipped through the shadows of the tall bushes by the 
wayside. 

Dot put “the horses in the stable,” and “the 
chickens in the coop.” She “ rode the elephant ” 
and jumped “ the pig over the stile,” and by and by it 
was supper time, and she had to lay her jack-stones 
aside for a while. 

They were half through the meal before she noticed 
that Chiffon was missing. Even then she was not 
alarmed, because she had seen him but a few minutes 
ago, when she was playing jacks on the veranda, and 
nothing could have happened to him in the mean- 
time. He certainly was somewhere about, especially 
since there was the smell of fried liver in the air. 
But neither the alluring meat nor her patient search 
and constant calling served to bring him to light, and 
after a while the members of the household volun- 
teered to act as a rescue party, and explored the 
neighborhood high and low until it became quite 
plain that the hunt would have to be given up for the 
night. 

Dearie persuaded Dot to go to bed at last, but the 
little girl was so distressed that it was hours before 


n 8 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


she could compose herself to sleep, and when she 
finally succeeded in closing her eyes she was quite 
exhausted and slept heavily through the rest of the 
night and long after the breakfast-gong had sounded. 
What waked her at last was the opening of her bed- 
room door, and Dearie’s voice calling her name almost 
before she had entered the room. 

“ Dot ! Dot ! Chiffon is found ! See, here he is, 
dear ! In my arms, safe and sound ! ” 

Dot was broad awake in an instant — sitting up 
in bed with wide open eyes and arms stretched 
out to welcome back the runaway. But when 
Dearie gave him into her hands she started back 
in amazement, for she hardly knew the little dog, 
so strange and unfamiliar he looked. His flossy 
white coat was smeared with mud, and tufts of hair 
were matted together here and there in hard, dis- 
colored snarls. The ribbon about his neck was 
bedraggled and stained with blood, while he seemed 
to have been thickly peppered all over with sawdust. 
His gallant little air had vanished with his fine 
appearance, and he held his tail close to his hind legs 
in a shrinking, guilty way, which said as plainly as 
words : “ I’ve been naughty, missy. I know it, but 

please don’t punish me this time. I’ve been through 





-V* 








& 


■ f V 








in 


4 \4 


$ 4 


JU 


yy- y *j 

Mj . .x:a> 




jt.* 




m 


&w : 


4m- 


u 


} jf 


ULsu 


SJJ 


J J 4 ■ J ^ *%.. ■ C f t . i ~t . j 

-j JUftwau-j - -* 

■WU tu .1 j J,jgUJ ' 

. ' j '*•* -* J J ~ * 






V : 


MF* 


"CHIFFON IS FOUND” 





Dearie , Dot and the Dog 119 

such a lot. I really don’t feel as if I could bear up 
under any more trouble.” 

“ Where have you been, Chiffon ? ” demanded Dot 
as sternly as she could speak. 

Chiffon hung his head and Dearie answered for 
him. 

“Mr. Emmons brought him back just now. He 
must have followed the cart yesterday — he and that 
horrid Peter from next door. They were both in the 
shop this morning when Mr. Emmons opened it, and 
a quantity of his best meat is simply ruined, for they 
made a night of it and chewed up everything in sight. 
Mr. Emmons says he has often seen Peter skulking 
about and has beaten him off repeatedly, so he never 
got anything before, but he and Chiffon must have 
stolen in very quietly last evening when he wasn’t 
aware, and he never suspected they were about until 
a few hours ago. By that time they had gotten into a 
fight and Peter was giving Chiffon a fearful mauling, 
when he came in and put a stop to it. He caught 
Peter and flogged him soundly, but he let Chiffon go 
with a couple of sharp smacks, because he says all 
that meat will surely make him terribly sick, and is 
likely to give him all the lesson he needs without any 
other punishment. From what he says, and from 


1 20 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

what the dog-fancier in town told us, I’m afraid we 
are going to have a wretchedly ill bow-wow on our 
hands.” ' 

And a wretchedly ill bow-wow Chiffon proved to 
be. lie wailed and whimpered piteously all day, now 
shaking with chills and now stiffening with cramps, 
and nothing gave him any relief until Olaf, the stable- 
man, took him in charge and almost strangled him 
with a nauseous dose of medicine, which at the time 
he thought would kill him, but, on the contrary, really 
cured him after a while. 

Dot and Dearie nursed him tenderly, and toward 
evening, when the pain finally vanished, they wrapped 
him up snugly in shawls and left him to sleep off his 
attack in the warmth and shelter of his own cozy 
basket, a sadder and a wiser dog. 

Peter, across the hedge, howled dismally all night, 
but the only attention he received came in the form 
of a heavy boot which some one hurled at him from 
an upper window because he disturbed their rest. 
Peter’s thoughts were very bitter. 

“ That’s the way it always is,” he snarled. “ I get 
nothing but cuffs and hard words, and that little 
simpleton next door is coddled most to death. People 
are very unjust and cruel and harsh in this world. 


121 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

Itere am I, a brave, courageous dog, with all sorts of 
bright ideas as to how the earth ought to be run and 
I am beaten with a cudgel — (that ugly butcher ! ) Ow- 
wow ! but won’t I bark at him after this and run at 
his horse’s feet and try to snap at ’em and frighten 
him into running away? Ow-wow ! Won’t I just? 
And the butcher— he never more than touched that 
silly little pup from next door, although he was quite 
as much to blame as I was — for even if I did suggest 
the plan he followed on quick enough, and now he’s be- 
ing petted and nursed and I’m out here all a-l-o-n-e ! ” 
“ Dear me ! ” murmured Dearie to herself, vainly 
trying to sleep, “ I do wish that miserable Peter would 
stop howling. There ! Some one has thrown some- 
thing at him! Now, perhaps he will be quiet and 
give us a little peace ! No, there he is at it again, 
louder than ever ! It almost seems as if he were bark- 
ing at some one. I wonder if it could be possible that 
a stranger is about the place. There ! I am almost 
sure I heard a step on the gravel — and now one on the 
veranda. 'Oh, dear! I wonder if I ought to alarm 
the house ! It might be a burglar — but a burglar 
would not knock on the door, — and that certainly was 
a knock on the door. There goes another ! Whoever 
it is evidently wants to get in.” 


122 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

Dearie rose softly, slipped on her woolen slippers 
and flannel gown and went to the window. The 
moon was shining brightly. She could see Peter 
standing beyond the hedge, tugging fiercely at the 
end of his long chain and barking hoarsely and hun- 
grily, his heavy jaws snapping viciously every now 
and again at the chain which was imprisoning him. 
The roof of the veranda hid the front door upon which 
the stranger, whoever he might be, had been knocking, 
and though Dearie leaned far out and bent far over 
she could not manage to see over the edge. 

“ Perhaps I am mistaken after all,” she thought, 
when she had spent a moment in intent listening, with- 
out hearing the slightest sound beyond the moving of 
the branches in the wind and Peter’s distressing 
serenade, but just as she was assuring herself that her 
fancy had played her a trick, she distinctly^ heard 
another knock, sharp and clear, ring out upon the 
panel of the door. She did not delay any longer, but 
hurried down-stairs and opened the door as far as its 
chain would permit. 

“Who’s there?” she asked through the discreet 
opening. 

“ Telegram ! ” replied a husky voice from the outer 
step. 


Dearie, Dot and the Dog 123 

Dearie slipped the chain and flung the door wide. 
The light from the hall-lamp was clear enough to en- 
able her to read the name of the person to whom the 
dispatch was directed. It was her own. For an in- 
stant her heart stood still. Thoughts of danger to 
Dot’s mother thronged to her mind. With trembling 
fingers she tore open the envelope. The message was 
a short one — only a few words, yet for a moment it 
made her breath come hard and her eyes grow dim : 

“ Bessie very sick. Can you come ? 

“ William Brooke.” 

That was all. But it was enough to send her flying 
like the wind to her room, where she wrote the reply 
Dot’s young uncle was feverishly waiting and hoping 
to receive. 

“ Will start at once. Keep up good courage.” 

In a moment more the messenger was trudging on 
his way back to the village again and Dearie was 
dressing herself hastily, meanwhile thrusting a few of 
the most necessary of her things into a bag. In the 
stable the horse was being harnessed in order that she 
might be taken to the railroad station to catch a mid- 
night train. 


124 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


“ I am sorry,” she whispered to Mrs. Francis, the 
housekeeper, whom she had aroused, “ but I am afraid 
I must leave Dot in your care. Mrs. Brooke is very 
sick, and I cannot take the child with me because she 
would only be an extra responsibility, and I shall not 
be able to spare a thought from her aunt. Will you 
explain to her in the morning how it is, and tell her 
to be a good girl and take care of Chiffon, so that 
when I come back I may find them both safe and 
well ? ” 

The housekeeper promised. . Dearie snapped the lock 
of her bag, fastened the clasps and then, with a last 
look at Dot who was sleeping soundly through all the 
commotion, so thoroughly tired out had she been by 
her night and day of anxiety over Chiffon, she hurried 
down-stairs and was driven rapidly away. 

And through the rest of the night the rushing train 
carried her flashing over the dreary miles of her jour- 
ney until at length when the sun was high and the 
world astir again, she found herself upon an unfamiliar 
station-platform looking into Uncle Will’s white, 
pinched face and hearing his hollow voice say chok- 
ingly : 

“ Thank you — for coming. She would be grateful — 
if she knew. She was so lonely — with no one of her 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 125 

own, I mean no woman she loved — to turn to. She’s 
just alive — that’s all,” while he led her to the carriage 
which was to take her to where Aunt Bessie lay, sick, 
suffering and in need of her. 

And Dot ? 

When she woke and found Mrs. Francis standing 
beside her bed instead of Dearie, and heard the story 
she had to tell, the sun seemed suddenly to go out of 
the sky, leaving the day dreary and cold and forlorn. 


CHAPTER XI 


PADDLING HER OWN CANOE 

The people in the house were very kind to Dot 
when they learned what had happened. Mrs. Francis 
offered to help her dress and to give Chiffon his bath 
in Dearie’s stead. Mrs. Jardine, one of the boarders, 
invited her to make herself quite at home in her room 
and Miss Evans, another, said she would be glad to 
have her “ trot along ” when she went out for her 
daily walks. Dot said, “ Oh, thank you ever so 
much,” to each of the kind offers, but she did not in- 
tend to accept any of them. She had a great plan in 
her mind and she meant to carry it out so that when 
Dearie came back she would be astonished and de- 
lighted and would realize that Dot was fully able to 
take care of herself without anybody’s help at all. 
She would miss Dearie of course, but after the first 
shock had passed of finding herself alone, Dot thought 
it would be great fun to “ play lady ” and feel inde- 
pendent and free to come and go where she pleased 
without having to ask any one’s permission or advice. 
She did not know that she began to toss her head and 
126 


12 7 


Dearie , Z)<?/ and the Dog 

carry her chin in the air as she dwelt on her own im- 
portance and the impression she was going to produce 
upon the household by her capability and self-reliance. 

As soon as breakfast was over she smuggled Chiffon 
into the deserted laundry and prepared to give him 
his bath in the most approved fashion. But she 
found it unexpectedly hard work to tug the pails of 
water from the pump outside and when, at length, she 
had successfully managed this part of the operation 
her arms were so tired that she scarcely had strength 
to accomplish the rest. Chiffon struggled violently 
against the shock of his ice-cold plunge but she held 
him firmly down in spite of his whimpering and 
shivers, having quite forgotten that Dearie always 
took the chill off first with some hot water straight 
from the kettle. 

“ Keep still, Chiffon, naughty dog ! ” she whispered 
irritably. “I’m doing it all just exactly as Dearie 
does and you’re having a beautiful bath. You ought 
to be ashamed ! Just see all this lovely tar-soap I’m 
putting on you ! At first it makes your hair brown 
like this and then when I rub it in, it turns into a 
nice, white, bubbly foam just like the eggs Lucy beats 
up for icing — only — only — it doesn’t seem to be doing 
it. It just keeps on being sticky and brown and 


128 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


thick. There now ! you mustn’t try to jump out ! 
Keep still and behave. I’m onty trying to rinse you 
off, you silly. . Now I’m going to wrap you up, all 
comfy like this in your ownty-townty bath-towel and 
when you’re dry your hair won’t mat down like this 
any more; it’ll all fluff out as it always does and 
you’ll be just as pretty as if you hadn’t been a 
naughty puppy and got yourself all messed up at the 
butcher’s yesterday.” 

But Chiffon did not believe her in the least. He 
knew perfectly well that something was wrong and he 
was very low in his mind in consequence. He always 
had dreaded being scrubbed, but this time it was 
worse than he had ever known it to be before. Oh, 
how cold it had been ! It made his skin shrivel just 
to think of it ! Even when he didn’t think of it it 
made his skin shrivel ! And oh dear, oh dear ! why 
couldn’t he shake his coat dry and loose and free as it 
usually was? He didn’t like this way of wearing 
it at all : plastered down close and fast to his skin so 
his very bones seemed to crack whenever he tried to 
stretch. Whatever in the world had happened to him 
anyway ? He was certainly drying, but the drier he 
became the harder and tighter his flesh felt — and it 
was getting worse and worse every minute. He knew 


129 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

he had been a naughty dog (he confessed it frankly) 
to run off so with Peter, but he had said he was sorry 
and he had thought he had paid his penalty yesterday 
when he felt so deathly sick in his little inside. But 
evidently that was only the beginning of his punish- 
ment and now it was striking out to the surface. Oh 
dear, oh dear ! He almost wished he had never been 
born ! 

Meanwhile Dot, after settling Chiffon in the sun- 
shine to dry, hurried back to the laundry to put the 
place in the order in which she had found it, for Dearie 
always made a point of doing so and Dot was deter- 
mined to follow her example in everything as closely 
as she could. But her earlier struggles with the pump 
and Chiffon had about exhausted her strength and 
when she began to bail out the tub she found her hold 
of the bucket was weak and unsteady. At last she 
had to give up trying to use a pail because it was so 
heavy to lift, but ladling the water out by the dipper- 
ful threatened to “ take all night ” and she was heart- 
ily sick of staying in the “ old laundry ” all by herself 
with no one to talk to, not even Chiffon. There 
ought to be some quick and ready way of doing it. 
When Dearie did it, it looked “ as easy as pie.” Like 
the youth in the “ Jabberwocky ” Dot “stood awhile 


130 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

in thought.” Suddenly she made a dash at the tub. 
She had found a quick and ready way and it was to 
tilt the tub over a “ weenty, teenty bit ” and let the 
water run out into the bucket which she could then 
manage somehow to tug out of doors. She pushed 
the tub back an inch or two using all her strength to 
accomplish it and then, when she had managed so far, 
she began gently to tip it forward. But either the 
bench on which it stood was slippery or the water in 
the tub dashed forward too violently, upsetting the 
balance, but, however it was, Dot felt her arms jerk 
forward suddenly as they were dragged by the weight 
of the lurching tub and the next minute she found 
herself sitting on the floor drenched to the skin while 
over the boards of the laundry rushed a regular tor- 
rent of tar-soap water. Lucy rushed out of the 
kitchen to see what the tremendous crash and splash 
meant and when she saw Dot sitting soaked and wild- 
eyed in the midst of the deluge she just put her hands 
on her hips and laughed till she choked. 

“O mercy me!” she groaned. “If this isn’t pad- 
dling your own canoe with a vengeance ! ” 

That was the last straw ! To be ridiculed and 
made fun of when she was trying so hard to be digni- 
fied and was all tired out and discouraged into the 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 131 


bargain ! She leaped to her feet, flashed a look of 
hot, speechless anger at Lucy and rushed from the 
place in a perfect passion of resentment and mortifica- 
tion. She had sense enough left to shrink from at- 
tracting attention on the way up-stairs and she fairly 
choked back the great sobs which were tearing at her 
throat, but when she reached the threshold of her 
own room and thrust open the door her control gave 
way and she burst into a loud, sharp cry. The sound 
waked Chiffon from his nap and he sprang up imme- 
diately to see what this new misfortune meant. But 
his coat was more uncomfortable than ever and he 
could only stalk stiffly and rigidly across the room 
when his instinct was to reach his missy at a bound. 
He did not bear any malice against her on account of 
the bath ; he had slept off the first keen edge of his 
wrath and now he just wanted to make up and be 
friends again and forget that it had ever happened. 
But when Dot, who had cast herself bodily upon the 
floor in a huddled, wet bunch of misery, felt his sym- 
pathetic little tongue upon her neck she stretched out 
her arm glad to gather the only friend she had left to 
her heart, and to pour into his attentive ears the his- 
tory of her woes. But at the first glimpse of him she 
shrank back. Her tears stopped instantly, she gave a 


132 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

great gulp of horror and sat bolt upright. Her first 
thought was that this was not Chiffon at all — this 
lank, dirty-looldng animal whose discolored hair was 
plastered close to his hide in a harsh, stiff mat. But 
the familiar appealing look in his eyes convinced her 
and she recognized him for her pet in spite of his 
dreadful transformation. But what was the matter ? 
How had he grown like this ? Would he never be his 
own pretty, bright, white self again ? It could not be 
possible that the bath she had given him had brought 
about this terrible change ! And yet he had been all 
right before — abominably dirty to be sure, but not, 0I1 
not like this ! She forgot that she herself was drip- 
ping from head to foot, in the awful thought that 
Chiffon might be ruined for life. 

Mrs. Francis, who had just heard of Dot’s accident 
from Lucy and who had come up-stairs to offer her as- 
sistance, almost laughed outright at the sight which 
met her eyes as she noiselessly pushed open the door 
of Dearie’s room. 

Dot was sitting on the floor in the middle of the 
room, her hair hanging about her cheeks in lank, wet 
strands, her soaked clothes making a pool about her, 
— the most melancholy looking little object imagina- 
ble ! while in front of her squatted Chiffon, a very 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 133 

caricature of a dog, staring straight into her horror- 
stricken eyes with a doleful, apologetic air which was 
fairly convulsing. 

But Mrs. Francis was wise as well as kind and she 
knew better than to give way to her impulse as Lucy 
had done. Instead, she came softly over to where 
Dot was crouching and said gently and quite in a 
matter-of-course sort of way : 

“I just dropped in to see how you were getting 
along, my dear. It’s very close on dinner-time and I 
suppose you’ll want to freshen up a little bit for the 
table and those buttons at the back are awkward to 
fasten oneself when one isn’t used to them,” and in a 
moment more Dot found herself pouring out the 
whole story in the good woman’s arms. 

“Why, it’s nothing at all,” Mrs. Francis assured her 
comfortingly. “You mustn’t mind! Lucy can mop 
up the laundry floor in no time and she didn’t really 
mean to make fun of you — you see she’s naturally an 
easily-amused sort of creature — the least little thing 
sends her into a fit of laughter. And now we’ll have 
you in fresh dry things in a twinkling and then no 
one except ourselves will ever be the wiser.” 

“ But Chiffon ” wailed Dot still incredulous. 

“ I tell you what I think is the matter with him,” 


134 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


returned her friend. “You used the water from the 
pump for his bath and it is what we call ‘ hard ’ : that 
is, the soap won’t dissolve in it. I’m almost certain 
that if we give him another scrubbing after dinner 

and use water from the rain-barrel for it, as jour Aunt 

% 

Dearie does, he’ll be as good as new again. Shall we 
try it?” 

“Yes, O yes, if you please !” returned Dot eagerly 
from out of the towel with which Mrs. Francis was 
drying her hair. 

So Chiffon was hidden away in Dearie’s room dur- 
ing dinner in order that he might not be seen in his 
present absurd condition to be laughed to scorn by 
unsympathetic boarders, and after the meal was over 
Mrs. Francis and Dot disappeared with him into the 
laundry from which he emerged in all his old-time 
glory of spotless skin and flossy white curls. 

Dot w r as so relieved and delighted that she almost 
forgot the humiliation of the morning but Mrs. Fran- 
cis noticed that though she still tried to do things for 
herself she was not quite so secure and overconfident 
as she had been earlier in the day. 

As the afternoon shadows began to lengthen Dot 
found herself missing Dearie more and more and 
when the darkness actually came down she felt melan- 


'35 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

choly enough. Mamma and papa far away, across 
thousands of miles of ocean and land at the other side 
of the world ! Dearie gone off in the night to stay, 
no one knew how many days, and bright little Aunt 
Bessie so sick that perhaps she would never get well ! 
These were doleful thoughts, all of them, and they 
nearly overpowered Dot completely as she sat by her- 
self in a corner of the veranda and brooded on them. 
She did not want to let any one see her shed tears, so 
she stole off by herself into a dark corner of the back 
entry, where she could nurse her woes in comfort and 
without fear of being disturbed. Chiffon was in her 
arms, and as she crouched down as far back in the 
shadow as she could get he snuggled close against 
her with a comforting sort of sigh as much as to 
say : 

“ Cheer up, cheer up ! the worst is yet to come ! ” 

But somehow or other, now that she was ready and 
waiting to grieve she felt much less like it than she 
had done on the veranda with all the grown-up people 
laughing and chatting around her, and the crickets 
chirping lonesomely in the grass beyond. Here it 
was snug and quiet and dark. With Chiffon cuddled 
close in her arms she did not feel left out in the cold, 
and so, before she realized it, she was fast asleep. 


136 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


The grown-up people on the veranda kept up their 
laughter and chat until far on into the night, then, 
one by one, they disappeared up-stairs. Mrs. Francis, 
who had had a hard day, went into her room as soon 
as she had satisfied herself that the supper was 
properly served, quite forgetting in her weariness 
that she had promised Dearie she would see Dot safely 
in bed during her absence. 

Lucy, Mary and Olaf, the hired man, talked together 
in the kitchen until the loud-voiced clock struck eleven, 
and then they, too, went to bed and by midnight the 
house was dark and still, with every soul in it fast 
asleep. 

Suddenly Dot felt a queer touch upon her cheek : a 
soft, wet touch, and then she waked up enough to 
realize that Chiffon was pulling frantically at her 
sleeve. 

“ Stop, Chiffon, stop ! ” she murmured drowsily, 
trying to settle down comfortably on what seemed to 
be a particularly hard mattress. But Chiffon did not 
stop. On the contrary he tugged more excitedly than 
ever, and when this did not seem to be making much 
impression he gave a low, urgent “ Wuh ! ” in her ear 
to arouse her. 

“ Oh, Chiffon, you’re real naughty ! What do you 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 137 

want, I should like to know ? ” mumbled Dot, stupid 
with sleep. 

“ Wuh ! Wuh ! ” repeated Chiffon persistently, tug- 
ging harder than ever at her sleeve. 

“ I’ll put you out of bed if you don’t stop plaguing 
so,” Dot muttered crossly, and then, like a flash, it 
darted across her mind that she was not in bed her- 
self — that she was — where was she? She sat up as 
straight as her cramped limbs would permit and was 
wide awake in an instant. The darkness about her 
was thick and strange ; it weighed on her chest and 
hurt her eyes when she opened them. She struggled 
to her knees and pressed her hands over her mouth, 
for every stifling breath she drew hurt her. Chiffon 
had fastened his teeth in the skirt of her dress and 
was tugging at it fiercely. Little by little her brain 
was clearing. At last she remembered where she was 
— in the back entry — and Chiffon was trying to guide 
her out. She let him lead her through the horrible 
blackness, groping after him on all fours, and when 
she felt the rim of the kitchen threshold she got 
on her feet and turned the knob of the door. The 
next instant a cloud of dense and smothering smoke 
swept over her, and peering through it she saw 
in the distance, where the kitchen stove was, a slen- 


1 38 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


tier tongue of yellow flame leap high against the 
wall. 

She closed the door with a bang and sank down 
upon the bare boards of the dark entry almost sense- 
less from shock and smoke and terror. She knew 
now what Chiffon’s warning meant. 

The house was afire ! 


CHAPTER XII 


AFTERWARD 

It would have been the easiest thing in the world 
to lie still where she had fallen and never get up any 
more, for her bones felt as heavy as lead and her head 
was dull and swimming, but somehow, one clear, 
sharp thought kept pricking through her clouded 
brain and she could not escape from it. 

“ Tell ! Tell ! Tell ! ” it urged. 

She struggled to get rid of it, for it irritated her, 
but when it persisted so obstinately she gave up in 
discouragement and began to crawl forward, .baby- 
fashion, in what she felt was the direction of the 
dining-room. She had not far to go, and when she 
succeeded in opening the door the fresher air from the 
open windows beyond revived her at once. 

“ Tell ! Tell ! Tell ! ” repeated her thoughts and 
Chiffon gave another sharp and joyful “Wuh!” to 
emphasize them. 

The hanging-lamp in the front hallway was kept 
burning all night and by its light Dot flew up-stairs 
139 


140 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

like a whirlwind, beating loudly at every door she 
came to and shouting “ Fire ! ” with all her might. 

It was as if the change had been wrought by magic, 
for in an instant the quiet house was in an uproar. 
Men were shouting : women screaming and the gen- 
eral hubbub so excited Chiffon that he gave way to 
his emotions and barked like a little mad thing. 

In a shorter time than it takes to tell it a line of peo- 
ple had formed from the well to the house and bucket 
after bucket of water was passed from hand to hand 
to be dashed upon the leaping flames. The tank in 
the attic was emptied and the rain-hogshead just 
outside the kitchen door was drained. Neighbors 
swarmed in from every direction, bringing blankets 
and ladders and proving a very capable fire-brigade. 
By three o’clock the danger was over. 

u We should be thankful there was no wind ! ” said 
one. 

“We never could have saved the house if there 
hadn’t been so much rain lately,” exclaimed another, 

“ What a blessing the fire was discovered so soon — 
before it had time to make more headway,” declared 
a third. 

The front lawn was littered with boxes and bundles 
and hysterical ladies in queer nondescript clothing. 



SHE FLEW UPSTAIRS LIKE A WHIRLWIND 



Dearie , Dot and the Dog 141 

When there was no longer any doubt that the worst 
was over, these mysteriously disappeared, and in the 
morning it was discovered that everybody had been 
perfectly composed all through the danger and no one’s 
presence of mind had deserted him for an instant. 

“ But what I want to know,” said Mr. Jardine at 
the breakfast table, “ is, who first gave the alarm ? I 
was sound asleep when 1 heard something that sounded 
like a battering-ram on my door and I can’t seem to 
remember whose voice it was that called 4 Fire ! ’ ” 

Nobody could answer him for apparently no one 
was any wiser than he. 

Mr. Jardine rose, pushed his chair back and stood 
up in an imposing attitude behind it. 

“Will the lady or gentleman who saved all our 
lives last night kindly oblige a grateful community by 
holding up his hand ? ” he demanded as if he had been 
an orator speaking from a platform. 

It was a suffocating moment for Dot. She had al- 
ways been afraid of Mr. Jardine because he made 
sport of everything and now his mock-sepulchral tone 
and absurd attitude convinced her that he was not in 
earnest and that he would only say something to make 
everybody laugh at her if she held up her hand and 
confessed she had given the alarm. 


142 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

“I don’t want to be made fun of,” she thought 
again and again as she bent mutely over her plate. 
“ Besides he said ‘ lady or gentleman,’ he didn’t say 
little girl, so I’m not really disobeying, for he hasn’t 
specially told me I must do it. And honestly and 
truly Chiffon was the one anyway.” 

“ It appears,” said Mr. Jardine slowly, “ that our 
hero of last night is of so modest and retiring a dis- 
position that he prefers to remain a great unknown. 
I wish he wouldn’t. Personally I’d like to thank 
him.” 

“ Perhaps it was Olaf ” 

“Or one of the kitchen-girls,” suggested Miss 
Evans. 

Mrs. Francis shook her head. “ No, I’ve already 
asked them,” she said. “I went down the first thing 
this morning to examine the kitchen-chimney to see 
how the fire started and neither Lucy nor Mary could 
tell me a thing about it. And as for Olaf, he confesses 
the first he knew of anything’s being the matter was 
when he heard the church bell ring. I always go into 
the kitchen the last thing before I retire, so I can make 
sure everything is in order, but last night I omitted 
it else I'd certainly have seen something was amiss. 
I was unusually tired and to tell the truth it just 


'43 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

slipped my mind. I got into my own room as fast as I 
could and quite forgot — quite forgot — I do believe — I 
quite forgot something else too — something I had 
faithfully promised I would do. Dot dear, I meant to 
look in and see that you had everything you needed 
before I went to bed, and I declare I forgot all about 
it.” 

Dot smiled faintly and looked guiltily down at her 
plate. But before she could attempt to say anything 
Mary, the waitress, stooped over and whispered some- 
thing in Mrs. Francis’s ear. 

Mr. and Mrs. Jardine, Miss Evans and all the rest 
instantly pricked up theirs. 

“ What is it ? ” 

“ Do tell us, quick ! ” 

“ You’ve got a clue ! ” 

Mrs. Francis looked anxious and alarmed. “Mary 
says,” she declared, “ that Dot didn’t go to bed at all 
last night. She says her bed hasn’t been slept in — 
that it hasn’t been disturbed. Dot, dear, what does 
it mean ? Where can you have been ? ” 

Dot’s cheeks were crimson. 

“ I — I,” she stammered shamefacedly, “ 1 fell asleep 
in the back entry all dressed and — when — when the 
lire was over I was so tired — I — just didn’t remember 


144 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

to take off my things and — and the sofa was real soft 
and — so ” 

For a moment Mrs. Francis’s eyebrows were knit in 
a troubled frown. Then suddenly her face cleared. 

“ The back entry ! You fell asleep in the back 

entry ! right next to the kitchen. Then — then 

It must have been you that But child alive, 

how in the world did you ever manage to wake up 
and discover the fire ? I should think the smoke 
would have smothered you. Why, I remember when 
I went down and opened the back entry door I was 
almost overcome by it. How did you ever find out in 
the first place ? ” 

The questions came thick and fast, pelting Dot like 
hail-stones from all sides and making her turn from 
one to another until she was dizzy with her attempts 
to reply to every one at once. 

“ Chiffon waked me up — he tugged at my sleeve. 
No, not right away. At first I was too sleepy ! — lie 
kind of barked until he made me open my eyes ! — Yes, 
it was awfully dark and I didn’t know at first where I 
was, but I felt most choked and it hurt my eyes too. 
— Not very long. I guess it was only a little while, 
but it seemed long. — I don’t know. I just felt I must 
tell. — The kitchen was thick with smoke. I couldn’t 


'45 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

bear it when I opened the door. But I saw the fire — a 
big yellow dame — and it frightened me and 1 shut the 
door on it and then — for a few minutes I didn’t know 
‘anything — I didn’t notice. I just felt I must tell and 
so — and so — I got up, I mean I crawled to the dining- 
room door and then ” 

“ Talk of miracles ! ” cried Mrs. Jardine wiping her 
eyes. “Just think of our owing our lives to this 
child ! ” 

“ Her instinct to close the kitchen-door was the 
miraculous thing ! If she had left it open the draught 
would have made the bre spread twice as fast ! ” 

“ But her knowing enough to call us — one after an- 
other. I say that is simply wonderful ! ” 

“ Her own life was in terrible danger. Bight there 
in the midst of that stiding smoke ! The dog’s 
waking her was Providential ! ” 

“Oh, they’re a pair of them — the kid and the 
puppy ! ” 

Dot looked around in amazement. Apparently the 
dreaded “ fun ” she had feared was not being poked at 
her at all. Not one among them seemed in the least 
inclined to laugh at her — not even Mr. Jardine who 
seldom let an opportunity pass to jeer at something. 
On the contrary, far from looking mischievous the 


146 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


“ jokey -man’s ” lips were twitching and his eyes looked 
strange and blurred. Dot quite forgot herself in the 
curiosity she felt in his strange appearance. What 
made him blink so and why did his hand tremble ? 
Suddenly he pushed back his chair again, jumped up 
and stalked off to the window turning his back on 
them and saying in a choky sort of tone — quite as if 
he had smoke in his throat : “ I say — I can’t get over 
it — a child like that ! It knocks a man out ! ” 

No one at the table spoke. Mrs. Jardine gazed 
steadily down at her plate and Miss Evans gave a 
nervous little cough. Chiffon saw his opportunity, 
made a dart for Mr. Jardine’s plate and cleared it of the 
few fragments of kidney that remained upon it in no 
time at all. Then he sat up straight in Mr. Jardine’s 
chair and waved his forepaws triumphantly. Mrs. 
Francis saw him and laughed, and that broke the 
spell. In an instant every one was talking and before 
she knew it Dot found herself and Chiffon surrounded 
by a clamoring crowd which proceeded to give them 
three cheers and “ another for luck ” at Mr. Jardine’s 
suggestion. 

“ Speech ! — Speech ! ” he cried when the shouting 
stopped. 

“ Speech ! Speech ! ” echoed Miss Evans. 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 147 

“ They want you to make a speech — to say some- 
thing, clear,” whispered Mrs. Francis in Dot’s ear. 

“About what?” asked Dot thoroughly confused 
and embarrassed. 

“ About last night. And — to thank them — and — 
and— everything.” 

“ Speech ! Speech ! ” repeated Mr. Jardine shulfling 
his feet upon the floor and making a great commotion. 

Dot, standing in her chair, where she had been 
lifted by some one when the cheering began, clutched 
Chiffon tightly to her and hung her head. 

“ Go on ! ” urged Mrs. Francis at her elbow. 

“ I don’t know what to say. It wasn’t much any- 
way. Chiffon woke me — and — and I woke you — and 
that's all there was to it — and I — I thank you — for — 
for ” she paused and looked about from one to an- 

other with puzzled, anxious eyes. Mrs. Francis had 
told her to thank them, but she had forgotten to say 
for what. 

“ Chiffon woke me — and ” — Dot repeated to fill in 
the pause, “ and I woke you — and — I thank you for 
getting up.” 

The shout there was at this was simply deafening. 
Before it had died away Dot had slipped down from 
her high perch and had managed to escape. 


148 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


It was strange how many pleasant things happened 
that day. Miss Evans took her for a long drive in 
her Meadow brook cart in the morning and Mr. and 
Mrs. Jardine invited her to sail with them on the lake 
in their Naptha launch during the afternoon. Mrs. 
Francis gave her a pretty fan and Lucy baked her a 
little chocolate cake in a saucer all for herself while 
between them all she was fairly on the way to be 
spoilt by too much petting and attention. But it 
served to get her happily through the second day of 
Dearie’s absence and by evening she had a letter 
which threw all the excitement of the last twenty -four 
hours quite into the shade. 

In the lirst place it announced the joyful news that 
Aunt Bessie was better and that if she could be kept 
very quiet and obedient to the doctor’s orders she 
would get well. At this point Dot had to get up and 
prance about the room to show how happy she was, 
but when she read on and learned that Aunt Bessie 
was longing so to see her that it had been decided it 
would do her more good than harm to have her wish 
gratified, she just clapped her hands and shouted with 
delight. As Dearie could not be spared from the 
sick-room Uncle Will was coming to take Dot back 
with him and, in the meantime, Mrs. Francis offered 


149 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

to’ pack her trunk and get her ready for the journey 
the next day. But the letter was not all joyous, for 
toward the end Dearie wrote, “ And I know that 
my Dot will be especially thoughtful and tender of 
Uncle Will just now and will not disturb him herself 
nor permit Chiffon to do so. She will be a cheer and 
comfort to him as well as to Aunt Bessie for they 
both are very sorrowful, and sadly miss the precious 
baby God lent them for an hour and then called back 
to Heaven again. It was a sweet baby, Dot. A little 
boy, and though he stayed with us so short a time, 
the house seems empty now without him. No one 
else can quite fill his place of course, but if you are 
very unselfish and considerate you can be a great 
comfort to us all. So come, my little girl and try.” 


CHAPTER XIII 


STORIES 

It was a long, long time before Aunt Bessie was 
well and during the first tedious weeks Dot had many 
a trial of patience. After the newness had worn off 
she found herself longing to get away — back to Mrs. 
Francis’s where everything was gaily astir and there 
was always something pleasant going on. Here at 
Aunt Bessie’s the house was still and hushed : nurses 
in white caps and aprons moved noiselessly and mys- 
teriously to and fro and there was nothing for a small 
girl to do except keep perfectly still and be on hand 
when she was wanted to go into the sick-room and 
stay for a minute or two and then steal out again. 
Dearie was always in demand and Dot hardly got 
more than a glimpse of her all da} r long. Little by 
little, as the invalid improved, there was a change for 
the better in the household also but it was so gradual 
that it did not “ count ” at first and Dot could have 
cried many and many a time from sheer loneliness and 
discouragement. Even Uncle Will, who was usually 
150 


» 5 ‘ 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

so bright and cheery, failed her these days, passing 
by with no more than an affectionate pat on the Lead 
or an absent-minded “ Hello, Dot ! ” instead of the 
whole-hearted laugh and greeting she was accustomed 
to receive. Her dolls and games had all been left be- 
hind at Mrs. Francis’s and she had nothing to amuse 
herself with except Chiffon and her own thoughts, 
which were anything but enlivening. But it was 
worth all the trouble and more to feel Aunt Bessie’s 
thin fingers tighten about her own in welcome and 
to hear her weak voice whisper : 

“ I don’t know what I should do without you, my 
Dot. It gives me courage just to look at your sunny 
face.” 

One by one, and slowly and slowly the long tedious 
days passed away. Then there came a sunshiny noon 
in September when a big chair was drawn close to 
the window of the sick-room and Aunt Bessie, well- 
covered in soft, warm wrappings, sat up surrounded 
by pillows and looked out into the light, bright world 
again. That was the beginning. Presently it was an 
old story to see her propped among her cushions on the 
couch and then it became quite natural to find her 
walking about the room and through the upper hall 
and chambers. But when she finally appeared down- 


i 52 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


stairs Dot felt that life had begun all over again and 
that there might be lots of fun in it yet. 

But by this time the days had begun to grow very 
short and the winds to get sharp and chill. The big 
log fire in the great hall- room was kept bright and 
glowing from morning till night and in the evening it 
was great fun to sit before it on the rug at Dearie’s 
feet and listen to the stories she and Uncle Will and 
Aunt Bessie would “ spin ” for her amusement about 
what happened when they were young. 

“ I do not think I could have been more than 
seven,” said Uncle Will one night, “ when the thing I 
am going to tell you about took place. We lived 
rather far uptown in those days and a great part of 
the neighborhood was not what is called ‘ improved ’ 
as yet. But the city was growing fast. Houses were 
going up all about us and streets were being cut 
through on every side so that we boys had a fine 
time of it watching the men at work. It was one of 
our pet amusements to go across the street to the 
buildings opposite and frolic among the scaffoldings and 
open beams. But by and by, as the work progressed 
the scaffolding came down, the floors were laid and 
then the best of the sport was done. The rest of the 
fellows went off to play elsewhere, for it was ‘no fun ’ 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 1 53 

wasting time in a place which was perfectly safe. 
The excitement of the game lay in risking our necks, 
I suppose. But I still hung about. I had a special 
interest in machinery and when I saw a great piece of 
it hauled into the buildings one day I had to go over 
and investigate. The men explained it was a turning- 
plane : it was used to make the moldings for surbases 
and door-panels and they cautioned me to keep away 
from it. But, like a young simpleton, the first chance 
I got I disobeyed. It looked so easy — just to push a 
crank, press on a treadle with your foot and shove in 
a piece of wood. I chose a time when the men were 
up-stairs eating their lunch, and then I tried the trick. 
It proved perfectly easy — too easy in fact. The crank 
went down, and the wheel ‘ went round like greased 
lightning.’ I shoved in my wood and it turned all 
right, in no time at all. The trouble was it turned 
so much faster than I had expected that I didn’t have 
a chance to take my finger out of the way and before 
I fairly knew what had happened the tip of it was 
neatly chopped off. The sudden pain and the sudden 
fright almost paralyzed me, but I had sense enough 
to take my foot off the treadle and to reverse the 
lever. I gritted my teeth and never made a sound. 
I was deadly afraid the men would know. The tip of 


154 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


my finger hung by a thread. I pressed it back into 
its place and stumbled home, heaving with sobs and 
covered with blood. That’s all there is to the story 
except that the linger actually grew together again 
and you’d never know it had been chopped at all but 
for this little scar and the slightly warped look it has 
at the end. But I can tell you this, Dot, it taught me 
to keep my fingers out of other people’s machinery as 
well as other people’s pie — at least until I understood 
the proper internal working of them.” 

“Did the workmen ever find out?” asked Dot 
breathlessly. 

“ Well, they didn’t let on if they did and to tell you 
the truth I rather fought shy of those particular 
buildings after that. One of the fellows heard one of 
the men say I was ‘ a plucky young shaver ’ to get 
out of the place as I had, but somehow I never felt 
quite easy in my mind as to the flogging I knew I de- 
served. It seemed best not to go over there and 
deliberately remind them of it. Anyhow, I kept 
away. Did you ever hear that discretion is the better 
part of valor, Dot ? ” 

“Now it’s Dearie’s turn,” urged Dot, eagerly. 

“ Beady ! — Go ! ” laughed Uncle Will. 

“When I was about thirteen,” began Dearie, 


'55 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

promptly, “ mother and father took a long journey 
West and they decided to have my sister Rose go 
along. I was to be left at home; that is, I was to 
spend the year with the aunt of mother’s for whom I 
had been named and who was very fond of me. Aunt 
Barbara lived in a large house and kept horses and 
carriages and was, altogether, a very stately and im- 
portant personage but I was a lonely little girl with 
no one of my own age to play with and I soon grew 
peaked and ailing for lack of proper exercise and 
companionship. Aunt Barbara had never had any 
children of her own and could not understand my 
case at all, but she did the best she knew how and 
when I began to have a cough she decided I was pre- 
paring for an early grave. I had always been per- 
fectly rugged and strong before but that did not ap- 
pear to signify. Aunt Barbara decided I was a frail 
darling, too delicate for this world and that I ought 
to be shielded from every draught. So she smothered 
me in red flannels and sealskin and instead of being 
able to frolic about in the wind and snow as I had 
been accustomed to do I was taken out to drive in 
a closed carriage for an hour every day muffled up 
to the eyes in furs. I looked out wistfully through 
the closed windows and from the depths of my fur 


156 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


and wished with all my might I were one of the jolly 
boarding-school girls whom I saw parading up and 
down the avenue every morning and who seemed to 
find their life such a particularly delightful affair. 
They were continually chattering and giggling among 
themselves and I longed and longed to have a share in 
the fun. Certainly I never confided to Aunt Barbara 
that I wanted to go to school but she must have 
guessed it for, lo, and behold ! she told me one day I 
could go if I chose. I almost jumped out of my shoes 
and my pleasure only dimmed when I found myself 
actually in the place and face to face with the fact 
that I was that most uncomfortable of beings in the 
world, a 4 new scholar.’ The chattering, giggling girls 
I had envied turned sober and tongue-tied the moment 
they saw me or if they talked and laughed at all it 
was among themselves and pointedly leaving me out. 
I felt it in my bones that they were talking about me 
and before night I was almost ready to go back to 
Aunt Barbara’s and the silent house and the hateful 
closed carriage. Almost, but not quite. Somehow 
even in those days, I could not endure the thought of 
letting myself be turned back by little things when I 
had once made up my mind to go on. So I stiffened 
my backbone and tried to look more cheerful than I 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 157 

felt. After supper quite a lot of the girls gathered in 
my room and began to quiz me — to ask me questions 
which I knew they expected would teaze me and to 
make remarks which I was just as sure they hoped 
would make me ‘mad.’ But I was determined I 
wouldn’t lose my temper. I would give them as good 
as they sent and then, at least they couldn’t flatter 
themselves they had conquered me. It was nearly 
nine o’clock when the great ‘ retiring-bell ’ rang. 
That ended the game. The girls in my room bade 
me good-night as if we had been friends all our lives 
and then left me to make the best of my lonely way 
to bed. I undressed slowly because I did so hate to 
realize how homesick I was and I knew it would come 
over me in a rush the moment I ^put out the gas. At 
last, however, I could not drag on any longer and had 
just turned down the light and gone to the door to 
place my pitcher outside for the maid to fill with hot 
water in the morning, when I heard a faint sound 
from the shadowy corridor and before I could decide 
what it meant something light and crisp struck me 
full on the cheek with the sharp stinging prick of a 
paper pellet. I was ‘ mad ’ enough to satisfy any one 
then. I shut my door with a quick jerk to escape 
any more attentions of the same sort, and turned up 


158 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


the gas to see how much of a mark was left on my 
cheek. As I turned around from the mirror I spied a 
speck of white paper on the floor and something made 
me stoop down and pick it up. It was not crushed into 
the shape of a ball but rather, it was twisted into a 
screw as if it were one of the ‘ notes ’ we naughty girls 
were so fond of sending flying across the schoolroom 
when the teacher wasn’t looking. I unfolded the 
crumpled scrap, and, sure enough, there was writing 
inside. It was a note. 

“ ‘ Dear Barbara : — 

“ ‘ Don’t go to bed please until you have read 
this. The slats are all out of it and you’lL go through 
on to the floor and crash. We girls did it for a joke 
on you and are sitting up waiting to hear it crash and 
then laugh. But you seem real nice after all and I’m 
sorry we did it. I did it as much as any one else and 
guess we all wish we hadn’t, for you seem real nice 
after all. You see first-off we thought you were 
proud and horty ’cause you rode in a carriage and 
sealskin jackets and things and have a room all alone 
by yourself, but I guess you are real nice after all. If 
you’d like to, I’d like to have you sit next to me in 
the desk Laura Pelham had before she went home be- 
cause her grandmother died. 

“ ‘ Yours lovingly, 

“‘Agnes.’ ” 


“ Well ? ” demanded Dot when Dearie did not go on. 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 159 

“ That’s the end,” said Dearie. 

“ No, no ! Tell more ! Tell what the girls did the 
next morning when you didn’t crash. And tell what 
you did that night with nowhere to sleep ? ” 

“ Oh,” responded Dearie, “ I wrapped myself up in 
a down-quilt and cuddled up on the pillows. I don’t 
quite remember how I did manage, but I got through 
the night somehow and the next morning when the 
girls enquired if my bed was comfortable I said I 
hadn’t asked it. Then we all shouted and became 
the best of friends on the spot.” 

“ O, goody ! goody ! ” cried Dot. “ I’m glad you 
got the best of them, Dearie. I’m glad you were so 
smart ! ” 

“ I wasn’t smart at all,” returned Dearie. “ I had 
only made up my mind to be good-natured and it 
paid, you see. Now it’s Aunt Bessie’s turn.” 

Aunt Bessie gave her head a doubtful shake. 

“ I wasn’t ‘ the-boy-stood-on-the-burning-deck ’ kind 
of a little girl at all and what I am going to tell you 
will prove it, I am afraid. I was what people call ‘ a 
case.’ At any rate I was up to all manner of mis- 
chief and my poor parents were almost distracted by 
my pranks. We lived out West in those days and 
though I did not know it at the time father was con- 


i6o Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


sidered one of the ablest and most important men in 
Iowa. They were always sending for him to speak at 
their political conventions and he used to make fre- 
quent trips through the State on business connected 
with the government. Well, he was just about to 
start out on one of these expeditions when mother dis- 
covered me in some particularly astonishing scrape 
and declared then and there that she would not take 
the responsibility of looking out for me while father 
was away. Father took me aside and talked to me 
about my behavior. He said I was getting a big girl 
now and ought to know better than to act so and at 
last, in a reckless moment, promised he would let me 
have whatever I wanted most if, in return, I would 
give him my word I would turn over a new leaf and 
be a good and proper child, in the future. Of course I 
didn’t hesitate a minute. I would be the best girl 
that ever was I said, if he would take me with him 
where he was going. Poor father ! he hadn’t ex- 
pected a proposition like this, when he made his bar- 
gain with me. But he was a man of his word then, 
as he is now, and he held to his contract though I 
know the prospect of what it might mean made him 
shake in his shoes. They packed my clothes in a fine, 
new satchel bought especially for me and when the 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 161 

time came for father to start off I went with him. I 
don’t remember much about the journey. It was 
‘ lots of fun ’ to be able to sit before a little table 
spread with delicious things to eat and look out of 
the car-window between bites while the train was 
flying through the open country. And then, the 
hotels where we stopped, with their bustle and flash 
ing lights and crowds of people ! At first the impor- 
tance of traveling alone impressed me tremendously, 
but by and by the novelty wore off and then the 
time hung heavy on my hands, especially when father 
was away and I was left to myself in our hotel-room 
with nothing to do but sit still and keep my word to 
‘ behave like a lady.’ But on the whole I did pretty 
well, and father was just congratulating himself on his 
luck when I spoilt it all and sent him home, what 
seemed to me then and for years after, a disgraced 
man. He left me one morning with the usual kiss 
and promise to be back soon and I settled down at 
once to wait for him and to plan what we’d do when 
the foolish 4 old convention ’ was over and he would 
be free to give all his attention to the serious business 
of amusing me. Well, the hours dragged on slowly 
enough and by noon I had counted all the white 
horses in sight to say nothing of the red-haired girls. 


162 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


I heard the clocks in the neighborhood strike twelve. 
Just to count the strokes made me feel hungry and 
when they gave a single one for half-past I felt 
emptier than ever. But one o’clock came and then 
two and three and still father didn’t appear. By this 
time I was so drowsy I couldn’t keep my eyes open. 
I don’t know just how long I slept, but it must have 
been for a couple of hours or more for when I waked 
all the sunlight had faded out of the sky and still 
father hadn’t come back. At first I was angry and 
then I grew frightened, but I did not give myself 
much time to think how I felt. I just got myself 
ready at once to go out and find him. I couldn’t 
have been over six, but I walked out of the hotel as 
boldly as if I had been sixty, and began my search at 
once by asking where the convention was. Every one 
helped me and by following the directions of first one 
and then another I found my way to a great building 
which, when I peeped in, I found was packed with 
people from floor to gallery. But even the sight of 
such a crowd did not daunt me. If this was the con- 
vention it was where my father was and that was all 
I cared about. I squirmed in somehow and looked 
about. It was a stupid place. Just a lot of people 
sitting and listening to a man who was shouting at 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 163 

them from a platform at the further end of the hall. 
There were flags and bunting festooned about the 
walls, but I don’t think I cared about them much. 
All I wanted to see was my father’s face, and though 
I kept a sharp lookout on every side I could not dis- 
cover it anywhere. I suppose the audience was so 
interested in the speaker that it did not notice the 
little girl sidling up the crowded middle aisle. Any- 
way I squeezed and squirmed my way, wherever I 
could spy an opening, and at last I really managed to 
get toward the front. But I might as well have 
stayed at home for all the good it did me. Father 
was nowhere to be seen. Up to this I had not had 
the first doubt of being able to find him, but when I 
turned and looked over that sea of unfamiliar faces 
my faith in myself began to weaken and I felt a- 
strange hollowness that was not altogether due to my 
dinnerless condition. Just at this minute, however, 
there was a rustle and stir among the audience, fol- 
lowed at once by a great hand-clapping and, in spite 
of my dismay, I turned around to see what it was all 
about. Pooh ! Just another man had gotten up to 
speak. If you will believe me that was every single 
thing that had happened. I was disgusted. Still the 
people clapped and clapped and the new man bowed 


164 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


and bowed and I stopped short to see if, by chance, 
he might be a wizard or magician or some one else 
worth while like that, who would do marvelous tricks 
to amuse us. As I was watching my eye happened to 
pass from him to the place in the row of platform 
seats behind him from which he had just risen. The 
empty chair looked bare and queer and made me 
think of the place in the front of my mouth where 
the tooth had lately dropped out. A second later I 
gave a great start, for directly beside the empty chair 
and in the one to the right of it sat my father. The 
people clapped on and the man continued to bow this 
way and that. But I did not pause to notice. 1 
wriggled my way toward the platform and mounted 
the steps. By this time the noise had ceased but I 
hardly was aware of it. I just ran across that plat- 
form as fast as I could go, lest some one should stop 
me, meanwhile crying loudly so that that tedious man 
in front who was just beginning to speak wouldn’t 
drown my voice : 

“ ‘ Papa Huntley ! You said you’d come home soon ! 
And you didn’t ! And how can I behave like a lady 
when I haven’t had anything to eat since breakfus ? ’ 

“ And all I remember is — not ‘ friends flocking 
round ’ but my father’s amazed eyes and then, sud- 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 165 

denly, a great roar that seemed to sweep over the 
house from end to end. At first I thought the man 
in front had done a trick after all and I craned my 
neck to see it but he was looking round at us — father 
and me — and I found I was mistaken and that it was 
at us two they were laughing. Then, oh ! how 
ashamed I was! I hid my face in father’s shoulder 
and did not lift it again until Ave were out in the 
street. Even then I hardly dared look up into his 
eyes, but strange to say when I did they were not 
fierce at all. I had disgraced him for life I was sure, 
and it made me so sorry that I would have taken any 
punishment without complaining. But no punish- 
ment came and that is the end of the story, Dot, un- 
less you’d like to know that I really did try to turn 
over a new leaf and behave like a lady after that.” 


CHAPTER XIV 


TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS 

School had been “in” for man ) 7 weeks when Dot 
went back to the city and she found herself hard 
pushed to keep up with her class. Dearie helped her 
with her lessons as much as she could but it was diffi- 
cult to make up for lost time and some days when 
there were reviews she grew quite discouraged see- 
ing how far the other girls were ahead of her. Sup- 
pose she were to be left behind at promotion time 
when Nellie and the rest would be advanced into the 
next grade. Even to think of it made her cheeks 
burn. 

Dearie spent a great deal of time with Aunt Bessie 
nowadays and between them great things were doing. 
The little baby that had only lived an hour was to be 
the means of help to many other little babies whose 
lives were longer and harder than his had been, and 
his saddened young mother was finding comfort in 
providing for them out of a full heart which other- 
wise would have felt very empty. 

There was nothing Mr. and Mrs. Huntley would 
166 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 167 

not do for their darling aud when they came back 
from their travels and found how near they had been 
to losing her she seemed more precious than ever. 

“ Papa says,” her mother declared the day alter 
they reached home, “ that he has thought it all over 
and he is going to give you a present, honey. He 
doesn’t care how much it costs, he says, so long as it 
is what you want most and what will make you hap- 
piest. So now choose whatever you prefer. — Any- 
thing, it does not matter what. Papa will give you 
precisely what you say.” 

Aunt Bessie clapped her thin little hands. 

“ Really ? ” she asked. 

“ Really,” said Mrs. Huntley. 

“ Then please tell him I want a baby -house.” 

“A — what?” Mrs. Huntley looked at Aunt Bessie 
for a moment as if she thought she might possibly 
have lost her wits. “ A baby-house ? ” 

Aunt Bessie nodded. “Yes, a baby-house,” she 
repeated. “ Since little Sweetheart died I’ve thought 
a lot about the poor, wretched small creatures down 
town that are born into the world to suffer and starve 
and have no one to look after them and love them. I 
know I can’t do much to help, but it would make me 
very happy if I could feel I was doing a little to make 


168 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

the poor mites better. If papa wants to give me the 
thing I’m longing for most he’ll give me a home for 
these poor babies. Dearie and I have seen the very 
place. We’ve passed it ever so many times lately 
when we’ve gone to drive. It’s a great, big rambling 
old house with acres of ground around it. It’s fright- 
full} 7 old and shabby to be sure, but it could be put in 
order and then it would make a perfect place for the 
darlings to frolic about in. Just think what fun it 
would be to plan the improvements. You perfectly 
love to shop, Mamma Huntley, and here’s your 
chance to buy all the things you can possibly think 
of, for I’m not going to be selfish about it — I’m going 
to let other people share in my lovely scheme. The 
owner of the place is anxious to sell and I’d rather 
have papa buy me that baby-house than anything 
else I can think of. Will he, O will he, do you 
think ? ” 

That was the beginning. The house was bought 
and work begun on it within a week. Dearie and 
Mrs. Huntley were busy from morning till night, 
planning and preparing, fitting and furnishing, while 
Aunt Bessie sat by and tried not to fret because she 
wasn’t strong enough as yet to do more than look on 
at the fun. At first Uncle Will and Mr. Huntley had 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 169 

not taken much account of what was going on. They 
were glad to please Aunt Bessie by giving her what 
she wanted, but that was as far as their interest went. 
Little by little, however, they got drawn in in spite 
of themselves and by and by forgot to explain care- 
fully to each other, It’s only to please Bess, you 
know,” every time they happened to meet at the 
baby-house and discovered each other giving direc- 
tions for new improvements and unexpected addi- 
tions, and just let the real truth of it be known, that 
they were almost, if not quite as eager to see the 
thing a success as she was herself. Even outsiders 
caught the fever and Mrs. Carter not only joined in the 
work heart and hand on her own account, but set 
Nellie at it too for the benefit of “Aunt Bessie’s 
babies.” 

“ I’m going to learn how to crochet little sacks,” 
said Nellie one day to Dot. “ Mamma says she’ll 
show me how. They’ll be too cunning for anything, 
done in white split-zephyr in shell-stitch, with pink or 
blue borders and ribbons to match. And some’ll be 
all white with white ribbons — as cute as can be.” 

“ I wish I could make some too,” said Dot wistfully. 

“Well, why can’t you ?” 

“ ? Cause I just have to study every minute to get 


170 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

my lessons and then I can’t get ’em, they’re so hard. 
I don’t want all the other girls to get ahead of me 
and be promoted and me have to stay back as if I were 
a dunce.” 

Nellie made no answer. Her conscience was urging 
her to say : “ I’ll help you, Dot. I know the lessons 
mostly all. I’m older than you and they seem real 
easy to me,” while her selfish heart was saying, “ I 
wouldn’t do any such thing if I were you, Nellie 
Carter. If Dot was away from school it’s not your 
fault. You’re at the head of your class and that’s all 
that need matter to you.” 

“ Why don’t you ask Dearie to help you ? ” she 
stammered out at last, fighting back both the inner 
voices with all her strength and trying to feel she was 
doing quite right. 

“ Oh, I — I — can’t,” confessed Dot sadly. “ Besides 
she’s so busy with the baby-house. I can’t ever 
hardly tell folks what I’m thinking about and I only 
told you now ’cause you’re my best friend — the girl I 
like the best of any. It’s — it’s awfully mortifying to 
have to let on you’re a stupid,” and hot tears of shame 
rose to Dot’s eyes. 

“ Oh, pooh ! I wouldn’t care about that if I were 
you,” said Nellie consolingly and then quite suddenly 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


1 7 1 


she got up and hurried home, leaving her hostess won- 
dering what had started her off in such a flurry. 
But the next afternoon she came back in the very best 
of spirits bringing her dainty wools with her and 
when her steel crochet-needle began to flash enticingly 
in and out of the soft zephyr shells, Dot was in de- 
spair. It seemed to her she could not endure it to sit 
there and see Nellie working for Aunt Bessie’s babies 
when she herself was doing nothing at all. She tried 
to study but the lessons would not let themselves be 
learned and at last, with a smothered groan of dis- 
couragement she hid her face in her elbow and began 
to cry softly into her sleeve. Suddenly she felt two 
arms about her shoulders and heard a kind voice 
whisper in her ear: 

“ Don’t cry, Dot. Please don’t. I tell you what 
we’ll do. We’ll study ’em together. I know ’em al- 
most all by heart. I’m older than you and they seem 
real easy to me. You’re not a stupid — not the least 
bit. It’s only ’cause you were away from school so 
long that you got behind. Now you see here ! This 
is what we’ll do ! I’ll come over here every after- 
noon or you can come to m}^ house and we’ll study 
our lessons together and I’ll help you over the hard 
places. Then after we’re done we can crochet on our 


172 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


sacks and have some fun, for I know Dearie’ll get 
you the things if you ask her to.” 

It was a great triumph for Nellie. Iler books were 
easy enough to learn but when it came to lessons in 
generosity and self-forgetfulness she had to struggle 
quite as hard as Dot did over arithmetic and spelling. 
And now she had won ! When the words were really 
spoken she felt a heavy load lifted off her heart. Her 
face grew bright, her eyes shone with happiness and 
she patted Dot on the shoulder in a motherly, com- 
forting way that was quite as new and strange to 
her as it was to her friend. 

They took up the bothersome books then and there 
and for two long hours bent over them dutifully. It 
was quite another matter to study this way, and some- 
how the puzzles seemed to straighten themselves out 
and the rough places to become smooth in a way that 
amazed and delighted Dot. Little by little as the 
weeks went by she found herself getting better marks 
at school and winning a higher place in the class. 
Thanksgiving came and went and it was time to 
think of Christmas. But in spite of all the merry 
bustle and jolly doings Nellie did not desert her. 

“You’re just the best friend in all the whole wide 
world,” Dot declared one day. “Just think of my 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 173 

being next to you — second in the class ! Why, I tell 
you what it is, when Dearie writes to mamma about 
it she won’t know what to do, she’ll be so glad.” 

Nellie laughed. “Well, you’ve got as high as you 
can go, for you needn't think I’ll let you get ahead of 
me, Miss Dot Brooke, so there ! ” 

“ As if I’d want to,” exclaimed Dot. “ I wouldn’t 
do it if I had the chance.” 

“Well, you won’t have the chance,” said Nellie. 

But strange to say the very next morning she 
did. 

It was examination day and Miss Gardner, their 
teacher, put the classes through a general review. 
For some reason or other Nellie did not seem quite 
herself. Her answers were slower and not so con- 
fident as usual and when her turn came round she felt 
herself growing eager and over-anxious. The ques- 
tions, falling thick and fast, made Dot in her excite- 
ment shake in her shoes and she had no time to think 
of anything except how to save herself and keep her 
place next to the head which she had won with so 
much difficulty and hard work. 

Up and down the line went the questions, trip- 
ping up this one and sending the other ahead of her. 
Geography, histo^, arithmetic, spelling! No one 


174 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

knew what would come next and no one had any 
chance to guess. Nellie’s face grew white and drawn 
under the strain, but she held her place in spite of all, 
while Dot, beside her, clung to hers as if by main 
force. Some of the girls began to cry because they 
had failed and some because they were so afraid they 
were going to. And still Miss Gardner did not stop. 
The long hand of the clock had almost caught up 
with the short one at twelve. In a moment the “ let- 
ting-out bell ” would ring and that would be the end 
of the misery. 

“Six times thirteen,” questioned Miss Gardner. 

“ Seventy-eight,” answered Nellie hoarsely 

“ Capital of Arkansas ? ” 

“ Little Rock ! ” Dot trembled. 

A second later and almost before they had time to 
catch their breath it was their turn again. 

“Spell caution,” commanded Miss Gardner. 

“ C-a-w-t-i-o-n, caution!” answered Nellie. 

“ Next ! ” said Miss Gardner. 

“ C-a-u-t-i-o-n, caution ! ” spelled Dot in a gasp. 

“ flight ! Pass up head.” 

The long hand of the clock had caught up with the 
short one and the bell rang out twelve loud, resound- 
ing strokes. 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 175 

“ Pass up head, Dot Brooke,” repeated Miss Gardner 
trying not to see Nellie's gray, stony face. 

But Dot did not obey. Her heart was thumping 
hard in her side and her head was swimming. She 
was confused and bewildered and nothing was clear 
in her mind except the one thought that she must not 
take Nellie’s place. 

“ Pass up quickly, Dot,” said Miss Gardner frown- 
ing a little at her delay. 

But still Dot remained where she was and now the 
teacher began to suspect that she was being openly 
defied, though for what reason she could not imagine. 
She looked at Dot with reproving eyes. 

“ What is the matter with you, child ? ” she asked. 
“ See, it is time to dismiss the school. You are delay- 
ing us all.” 

Dot did not move. Nellie gave her arm a clutch 
and tried to pull her forward but she might as well 
have attempted to move the City Hall. 

In the meantime Miss Gardner was trying to think 
out the best way of dealing with a very puzzling 
problem. She knew that Dot and Nellie were close 
companions and she thought the reason Dot refused 
to take her rightful place was that she wanted to be 
generous to her friend. Well, that was very nice of 


176 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


course, but it was not to be expected that it should be 
allowed to interfere with school discipline. If Dot 
deliberately disobeyed her and she permitted it to 
pass what could she look for from the other children ? 
In no time at all she would have lost her control of 
them. Her mind was made up. 

“ Dot, do you hear me speak ? ” 

Dot’s eyelids quivered. 

“ Please pass up head at once.” 

For a short minute the class held its breath while 
Dot stood still as a statue and Miss Gardner set her lips. 

“ This is the first time,” the teacher said at last, 
“ that you have ever disobeyed me, Dot. But unless 
you instantly do as I bid you, you must be punished. 
Pass up head this minute or go down to the very foot 
of the class in disgrace.” 

Very, very slowly Dot turned and took a faltering 
step toward the foot. 

“ Oh, Miss Gardner — you — you mustn’t, please,” 
broke out Nellie in a sudden gasp, but she stopped in 
the middle of her sentence as the teacher said : 

“ Not a word. School is dismissed,” and turned 
her back upon them all. 

Dot and Nellie walked home together through the 
clear, cold December sunshine in great unhappiness. 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 177 

“ She’s a mean old thing, that’s what she is ! ” 
scolded Nellie angrily. 

Dot swallowed hard. “Well, you know,” she said, 
“I s’pose she thought I was horrid. And I s’pose 
I was.” 

“Well, what if you wouldn’t mind her? She 
might have let me say something about it when I 
tried to,” sputtered Nellie. “ But I never in all my 
born days saw such a silly as you are, never to open 
your mouth when people say things to you. What in 
the world ails you anyhow, Dot Brooke? Why didn’t 
you go up head, when she told you to ? Why did you 
stand there and never say a word when she kept on 
and on saying 4 Bass up head ! Pass up head ! ’ ” 

“ I couldn’t,” was all Dot had to reply. 

But late that afternoon she slipped out of the house 
with Chiffon at her heels. 

Miss Gardner was sitting comfortably before her 
study fire toasting her toes and resting in the twilight 
when there was a knock upon her door, and to her 
surprise there appeared before her in the dusk the 
figures of a small girl and a smaller dog. 

“ Why, Dot ! What brings you here at this hour ? ” 
was her astonished greeting. 

Dot gasped and Chiffon began to sniff about suspi- 


178 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


ciously as if he did not approve of the place and 
wanted to investigate it thoroughly before permitting 
his dear missy to take any risks. 

“ Won’t you sit down ? ” invited Miss Gardner, draw- 
ing up a chair. 

Dot dropped into it and Chiffon settled himself at 
her feet on guard. 

“I — I came,” she stammered, “ ’cause I want to 
tell you, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to be naughty and 
not do what you said this morning, but I couldn’t, you 
see, I just couldn’t go ahead of Nellie. She — she’s 
been good to me. She’s helped me with my lessons 
all along. They were hard and I couldn’t do them by 
myself and she ’xplained them all and made it easy 
for me to keep up. Don’t you see, Miss Gardner, I 
couldn’t go above her, after that ? And besides, Nel- 
lie wasn’t well to-day. I guess she felt real sick all 
over or else she would have spelled it right. She 
knows how to spell caution better’n I do — lots. She 
only missed ’cause, well — kind of by accident.” 

By the time Dot had got half through her apology 
Miss Gardner was sitting bolt-upright in her chair. 

“But why then, child, did you not say this at the 
start ? Why did you just stand there and disobey 
me ? ” 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 179 

“ I — I couldn’t tell — before all the class,” whispered 
Dot. 

“ But you could disobey me before all the class,” 
said Miss Gardner. 

This new view of the matter made Dot blink with 
astonishment. 

“ Why — why — I never thought of that,” she hesi- 
tated. u O, Miss Gardner, I’m awfully sorry. I’ll 
say it right out before all the girls to-morrow, if you’ll 
let me. I will, really and truly.” 

Miss Gardner considered a moment. “ And still be 
quite satisfied to keep your place at the foot of the 
class ? ” 

“Well — not quite satisfied,” admitted poor Dot. 
“ But I’ll stay there till I can get up head again.” 

“ Good girl ! ” declared the teacher. “ That is 
brave as well as honorable.” 

Dot was almost too happy to reply. It was such a 
relief to know she was really forgiven and that Miss 
Gardner was her friend again, that she was ready to 
take her punishment without complaint. 

She kissed Miss Gardner and left the house almost 
gayly, with Chiffon frolicking at her heels. 

It grew dark very early these winter days and she 
ran the whole way home as fast as she could, to get 


180 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

in out of the bleakness and dusk of the shadowy 
streets. Indeed, she was so bent on getting to the 
house that she did not look left nor right as she ran 
and did not see a dim shadow dart out suddenly from 
a hidden nook near a street-corner and seized Chiffon 
swiftly up in its arms and hide him beneath its coat. 
But Chiffon saw and was making a frantic struggle to 
escape when a great coarse hand was clapped firmly 
over his muzzle and a harsh voice whispered threaten- 
ingly in his ear : 

“Hold still there, you little brute! You’re a lost 
dog, you are. You’re goin' to be held for a reward, 
you are. I know you well an’ what }^ou’re wuth and 
what yer folks ’ud pay to get you back. O, bless me, 
yes ! I know all about you, I do. I kep’ a sharp eye 
out that day las’ summer when I came to \ r our base- 
ment-door and said sech genteel things to the young 
lady as owns you — just to detain her and give me time 
to look around. I’m a smart one, I am. An’ I’ve got 
you for keeps, my fine white pup, unless I’m paid well 
to give you up. Lie still there an’ don’t you try to 
yelp ! You won’t ? Then take that ! How, we’re 
off an’ to-morrer we’ll watch the Lost and Found in 
the newspapers for a reward, you an’ I.” 


CHAPTER XV 


SURPRISES 

With Chiffon gone Dot did not much care what 
happened. The only thing she really took interest in 
now was the great search Uncle Will and Mr. Huntley 
immediately set about making for her lost pet. Ad- 
vertisements were put in the papers offering rich re- 
wards ; the police were notified ; everything that 
could be thought of was instantly tried. 

The next morning after Dot ? s visit to Miss Gardner 
she set out for school white-faced, listless and lonely. 
Nellie was not with her, for Mrs. Carter had sent 
Anna over before breakfast to say that the child was 
really sick and would not be able to leave her bed. It 
was the last day before the Christmas vacation and it 
ought to have been a jolly one, but Dot took no heart 
in it. Tor all she cared they might just as well have 
been going on with the usual round of lessons, as 
recite pieces and have music and receive Christmas 
gifts and candy. She took her place of disgrace with 
an aching heart while the rest of the girls looked at 
181 


182 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


her out of the corners of their eyes and were glad 
they were not in her shoes. 

The opening-bell rang. Dot folded her arms with 
the rest and sat “ at attention.” Miss Gardner read a 
chapter from the Bible and repeated a prayer. Dot 
was sorry when the Amen was said, for then she had 
to raise her head. 

“ Children,” spoke Miss Gardner, “ before we begin 
our regular Christmas exercises I want to say a word 
to you. All who were here yesterday and took part 
in the examinations remember how unhappily they 
ended.” The teacher paused for a moment, and while 
she stood silent Dot rose slowly in her place and made 
her way miserably up the aisle until she stood on the 
platform with the eyes of the whole class upon her. 
It was a cruel moment for the shy, sensitive little girl. 

“ Miss Gardner,” she faltered with difficulty, “ I 
want to tell you that — that I’m sorry I was so bad 
yesterday. I didn’t mean to disobey you, but I 
couldn’t pass up head over Nellie ’cause she only 
missed by accident, ’cause she was sick and — and — 
besides she’d been good to me. She helped me with 
my lessons when — when I was stupid and couldn’t 
do ’em alone. And, please forgive me for not mind- 
ing you. I’ll try never to be disobedient any more.” 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 183 

The hush that followed scared Dot more than even 
the awful sound of her own voice had done. Her 
knees trembled under her and she began to sway back 
and forward unsteadily while the room seemed to 
whirl away from her dizzily. But the next instant 
all was right again, for Miss Gardner had taken her 
hand and was saying kindly, “ I accept your apology 
gladly, Dot, and in return I’d like to say that I think 
our misunderstanding could have been avoided if I, 
myself, had known how to spell caution : that means 
if I had not been so hasty. Nellie knew how to spell 
the word, I am sure, and you are right in feeling she 
ought not to have lost her place because, being really 
sick, her mind was not as clear as usual. But I leave 
it to the class to decide if you are to remain at the 
foot of the line now you have made the honorable 
amend. I’ll take your vote on it, children. All in 
favor of having Dot take her old place next the head 
say ‘ Aye ! ’ Those not in favor say ‘No!’” 

Such a thundering chorus of “ Ayes ! ” as broke 
from the astonished, open-mouthed roomful. There 
was not one dissenting “ No ” among them, and Dot 
found herself reinstated in her old place of honor be- 
fore she fairly had time to realize it. If it had not 
been for her grief over Chiffon she would have felt 


184 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


like dancing for joy. But even Christmas, with all its 
wonderful delights, did not succeed in really rousing 
her. Her little friend was gone and she missed him 
at every turn. 

“Dear me!” sighed Aunt Bessie dolefully, “I wish 
there were something one could do. Will has adver- 
tised in the papers time and time again, and has offered 
absurdly large rewards, and papa has set people search- 
ing for the puppy, but it seems as if the little creature 
had disappeared for good and all, past recovery.” 

“ I can't understand it,” said Dearie sadly. 

“ If Dot would only consent to have another dog. 
Papa says he would give her one in a minute, but she 
won’t listen to any plan to replace Chiffon.” 

“No, she really loved the little creature. They 
were great cronies. I think she would not grieve so 
if she felt sure no harm had come to him.” 

“ But that’s just what we can’t be sure of, any of us. 
It’s too dreadful to think what may have happened ! ” 

The following weeks and months passed by in a 
flash to the older people, while to Dot they seemed 
to crawl. They might have gone even slower yet if 
she had known the great happiness that was in store 
for her, the secret of which the family were keeping 
close because they were afraid the looking forward 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 185 

and waiting for it to come true would be bad for 
her. 

Captain and Mrs. Brooke were coming home ! 

“ If they could only manage to get here by the first 
of May when we open the baby-house,” cried Aunt 
Bessie eagerly. “ What fun it would be to have all 
the celebrations together, and what a treat it would 
be to see Dot happy again.” 

But Dot, with never a notion of what was coming, 
worked on patiently enough until the great May-day 
really came and she took a last gratified look at the 
fine stock of dainty baby-sacks her busy fingers had 
made and that she meant to carry with her as a sur- 
prise for Aunt Bessie. 

“ O dear ! ” she sighed to herself as she was dress- 
ing for the great event. “ If only Chiffon were here 
now ! Dearie would have brushed his coat and tied 
a new ribbon about his neck so he would be extra 
fine and fancy for this afternoon. And he would be 
so proud ! The babies would like his tricks and 

would love him so and — and ” As she bent over 

to tie her shoe-string a bright tear-drop fell to the floor 
and hid itself, as if it were ashamed, in the wool of 
the rug. 

44 Dot !— Dot ! ” 


1 86 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 


It was Ellen’s voice calling to her from down- 
stairs. 

“ Dot ! — Dot ! ” repeated Ellen excitedly. 

“ Yes, Ellen, I’m coming ! ” 

“ There’s some one at the basement-door wants to 
see you.” 

“ Wants to see me *? ” 

Who could it be? Nellie never came to the base- 
ment door and besides Nellie was getting ready for 
the opening of the baby-house, just as she was doing 
herself and would not come over until it was time to 
start. Who could it be ? 

She reached the basement-door at last. Ellen, who 
had hurried on before her, stood in the area- way 
with Katy beside her and both the women Avere peer- 
ing curiously through the grated iron gate into the 
little paved courtyard outside Avhere a ragged, stoop- 
ing figure cowered. The man was leaning Aveakly 
against the gate trembling and shaking. As Dot 
appeared he made an effort to touch the brim of his 
soiled and weather-beaten hat with his hand, lie 
was thin and gray and he spoke in a husky, faint 
voice as if he had little or no breath to spare. 

“ Lit’l lady,” he panted, “ y’r ’umble ser\ T ant. I’m 
poor man — jus’ out of th’ ’ospittle. Was tuk bad las’ 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 187 

December — five months ago — in street — an’ fust thing 
I knowed they’d put me in th’ ’ospittle. When I come 
to and found it out — I wuz dretful upset fer I hed a 
lit’l dorg with me — jest kinder holdin’ him in my 
arms, like, on the street an’ I wuz afeared they’d take 
him from me an’ treat him cruel. But they didn’t ; 
they treated him good. I was sure the dorg was 
yourn. Saw him here las’ spring — one day. Would 
a brung ’im straight back, only o’ course I cuddent, 
bein’ so low.” 

Dot’s lips were white and stiff, but she managed to 
gasp out : “ Where is he ? O, where is Chiffon ? ” 

“ Why, ye see,” continued the man, with a sly, side- 
long glance, “ I made ’em bring me the newspaper the 
fust thing and it had ’tisement in it. Beward offered. 
I’m poor man — jus’ out of th’ ’ospittle. If you cud 
give me suthin’ now — for all I’ve ben through an’ fer 

the fond care I’ve give that dorg ” 

Dot wrung her hands. Dearie was away — at the 
baby-house — and she herself had no money. The man 
saw her hesitation and turned as if to shuffle sul- 
lenly off. 

Oh, no, no ! Don’t go ! ” implored Dot wildly. 
“ Give me back Chiffon and— and— I’ll — I’ll give you 
a reward. I’ll give you ” — she made a sudden snatch 


188 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

at the precious jeweled ring Aunt Bessie had given 
her, dragged it off her finger and held it up for him to 
see — “ I’ll give you this ! ” 

The man’s evil, sick face flushed and his tired, greedy 
eyes glistened. “ I’ll go to get the pup,” he faltered 
shortly as he turned away. 

While he was gone Dot was so excited she could 
not stand still. Ellen and Katy looked at each other 
and shook their heads. They saw plainly enough 
that the man was sick, but they did not believe he 
was honest and they had determined to watch him 
closely and see that he played no trick upon them. 
But it was indeed Chiffon that he brought back with 
him from some neighboring nook where he had left 
him hidden away. Sadly changed in appearance and 
broken in spirit as he seemed to be, Dot recognized 
him at once. 

“ Chiffon ! Chiffon ! ” she cried, and the little crea- 
ture struggled faintly in his captor’s arms to escape and 
answer her call. But the man clutched him fast. 
“ E’s ben sick, too,” he muttered huskily. “ But I 
nussed him faithful and ’e loves me fond, don’t you, 
doggy ? It breaks my ’art to give ’im up.” 

Chiffon’s head sank hopelessly and he ceased to 
struggle. 


Dearie, Dot and the Dog 189 

‘‘ O, give him to me ! Give him to me ! ” panted 
Dot. 

“ All in good time,’' quavered the man. “ The re- 
ward — fust.” 

Dot thrust the ring forward savagely, the tramp 
clutched it, and while Ellen and Katy stood by 
to see there was fair play he gave up the dog, 
whereupon Katy caught Dot back and slammed 
the area-gate shut upon him as hard as she could 
slam it. 

“ The old impostor ! ” she said angrily. 

“O, Katy,” gasped Dot, suddenly remembering, 
“ he’s the tramp I told you about last spring, don’t 
you know ? The one with the ” 

“ Extry polite manners ? ” suggested Katy. “ It’s a 
scamp he is.” But Dot cared nothing for the man 
now. She had recovered her little friend and that 
was enough. Dirty and unengaging as he looked she 
carried him in her arms to the baby-house and fondled 
him all the way. 

“I declare,” said Kellie, “ he seems to be getting 
better every minute. Poor puppy ! But how he did 
gulp down his lunch. I know he’s been starved and I 
shouldn’t wonder if he had been Beaten. Pie looks 
like it.” 


ujo Dearie, Dot and the Dog 

“ Hush ! O please, hush ! ” Dot implored. “ I can’t 
bear to think of it.” 

The babv-house was beautiful, but she hardly saw 
it. Its spick and span new furniture, its velvety green 
lawns, its crowd of gaily-dressed, admiring visitors 
were not half so interesting to her as Chiffon’s sad 
eyes which seemed to look up at her longingly as if 
they wanted to tell her all he had been through, and 
his touching little attempts to bark sounded far 
sweeter in her ears than the fine music the orchestra- 
men were playing behind the palms and fernery in 
the babies’ sun-parlor. 

There were speeches and hand-clapping : ice cream, 
cake and lots of chatter and after it was all over and 
everybody had gone through the baby-house and de- 
cided it was “just too lovely for anything ” and “ a 
perfect success,” Dot and Dearie found themselves 
driving happily home in the light of a glowing sun- 
set. Mr. and Mrs. Huntley, their kind faces beam- 
ing with generous good-will and satisfaction, and 
Aunt Bessie, her shining eyes full of contentment and 
hope, were following on behind and it had been ar- 
ranged that the whole family should take dinner 
together at “ Dot’s house,” as Nellie called it, for a 
sort of extra celebration. 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 191 

“What a big table it’ll be,” sighed Dot happily. 
“Just like Thanksgiving or Christmas. Everybody’ll 
be there — even Chiffon. But — but — where is Uncle 
Will? Why wasn’t he at the baby-house ? I should 
have thought he’d have liked to please Aunt 
Bessie.” 

Dearie looked uneasy. “Uncle Will must have 
been very busy. I think he must have had sud- 
den news and been called away on an important 
errand.” 

Poor Dearie ! it seemed to her the wheels had never 
turned so slowly and that the drive into town had 
never been so long. Surely, surely the telegram must 
have come telling Uncle Will the ship had arrived, 
else he certainly would have been at the baby-house. 
And if the ship had really come in, then she would 
soon see her dear sister again. These last few hours 
were harder to bear than all the long, long months of 
separation had been. 

“ Dearie, Dearie,” cried Dot, peering ahead as the 
carriage turned at last into their own quiet street, 
“ the people next door to us are moving, I guess. 
There’s a carriage in front with lots of trunks on it.” 

Dearie started and her face grew white. “Don’t 
look, Dot ! Don’t look ! ” she gasped helplessly. 


192 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

But Dot did not hear. “No— a lady’s getting 
out of the carriage and going up the steps — our 
steps. And she looks like — she is — oh, mamma ! 
mamma ! ” 

How she ever reached the pavement Dot never 
knew. Another instant and she was in her mother’s 
arms — right out there in the street, where every one 
could see! Then, somehow, like magic, they found 
themselves in the house. Mr. and Mrs. Huntley, 
Aunt Bessie, Uncle Will and all and, dear me ! 
what a laughing and crying time there was after 
that. 

“ They got in at three,” she heard Uncle Will ex- 
plaining to Aunt Bessie and Dearie, as if she were in 
a dream and his voice was coming from far off. “ I 
didn’t telegraph you as I had promised to do when 
the ship was sighted because there was no telling just 
when it would get in. So I went down to the pier 
myself to meet them and brought them straight home 
and — here we are, you see ! ” 

“ They ? — them ? ” echoed Aunt Bessie and Dearie 
in a breath and full of bewilderment. “You don’t 
mean Henry has come too ? We thought he’d have 
to follow on his own ship ! ” 

Uncle Will laughed. “Yes, Henry has come too,” 


Dearie , Dot and the Dog 193 

he replied with a merry look at Dot’s mother. Then 
with a great flourish he threw open the library door 
and in stepped a neat-looking woman with a white- 
cloaked baby in her arms. 

“ Allow me to present my nephew, Master Henry 
Huntley Brooke who is, his mother tells me, to be the 
especial and particular property of Aunt Bessie and 
me. Bess, come here and see this precious youngster. 
He’s named for your father just as little Sweetheart 
was, and ” 

But Aunt Bessie did not wait for more. She gave 
Dot’s mother one long, grateful, tearful look and then 
hungrily gathered Master Baby to her heart while he 
gurgled and crowed and tried to grasp at the shim- 
mering, golden head bending over him. 

“ O, Dearie, Dearie ! ” sobbed Dot from her mother’s 
arms and under the impression she was laughing, 

“ and papa coming home in a few days ! Did you ! 
ever know of so many good things happening? 
Chiffon and then the baby ?” 

How everybody laughed at Chiffon’s being put 
first. 

“ ‘ Chiffon and then the baby ! ’ ” echoed Uncle Will 
mockingly. “ Look out. Dot, Master Hewcomer will 
be jealous ! ” 


kj 4 Dearie , Dot and the Dog 

But Dot knew better. “ Good friends are never 
jealous,” she said. “ And we’ll all be good friends 
together, you know. The very best friends in the 
world.” 











































I 


t 








* 

















* 













•» 




i 







r 






















































* 

J 


: 




i 


J 






























t 














































































» 



























* 










































V 


l 





















































































































/ 




















































































































































































